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A world cordoned off

WHILE the world has been busy absorbing the terrible news from China, with individuals, governments and airlines all weighing the risks of the coronavirus, the Trump administration has issued another…

‘Repulsive’ & ‘primitive’

HISTORY is revealed quite slowly in the US. This is particularly true of its presidential history. Long, painstakingly compiled records of telephone calls, conversations, memos and everything else imaginable from…

Learning from China

Most of us learn proverbs at the primary school stage and many of us would have written essays upon essays on these adages. Readers would recall, for example, “A man…

The parallel cinema chapter

In response to my article ‘What is parallel cinema?’ published in these pages on July 22, I received many emails from students of film studies in Pakistan and abroad. While…

King and Gandhi’s India

On April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King Jr, one of the greatest nonviolent leaders of the 20th century, was assassinated on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, US.…

The morning after

For the second time, it seems, the powers-that-be have not been able to handle ‘Project Imran’. And this will have consequences in Pakistan’s vacillating experience with democracy and the principles…

Leadership and economics

Upon the conclusion of every single overseas visit I am filled with sadness and a deep sense of disillusionment. This is despite a divinely blessed deep reservoir of optimistic attitude…

The perils of anocracy

Anocracies are countries in transition towards full democracy after having experienced non-democratic rule in the past but are not fully committed to democratic practices. These countries have a high probability…

A polity riven

An analysis of Pakistan’s politics performed in the style of a laboratory experiment would include the scientific imperative that any alteration of the variables combining to achieve a desired result…

Some grace, Mr PM

Imran Khan and his party have decided to fight back – but fight back against whom? Rather than conceding that all is lost and let the constitutional process run its…