Naked honour
Over the centuries, a highly patriarchal society has controlled female desire, especially related to carnal pleasures, behind the mantle of honour. A woman in any capacity – wife, daughter, mother…
The age of consent
In April 2014, the Sindh Assembly passed a law which made marriage to a female under the age of 18 punishable by up to three years months in prison. Previously,…
What constitutes ‘dependent’?
The ongoing debate on the issue of "dependent" (translated as zair-i-kifalat) of Maryam Safdar on her father in media and elsewhere needs to be analysed from a pure legal perspective.…
Comments on Companies Ordinance, 2016
The companies' law is the primary and mother law for the businesses to be run under the corporate sector. Other laws, including banking laws etc rely on this primary law…
New tragedy, old lessons
Nearly nine months after the attack on the Army Public School, Peshawar in December 2014, the TTP struck again at the Pakistan Air Force Camp Badaber located a few kilometres…
The murky middle ground
The Islamists in Pakistan are not impressed by sympathetic scholars’ defence of their politics over the last decade. These religious groups refuse to comply with the scholarly renditions of them…
The religious right strikes back
After offering their Fajr prayers, they boarded the bus destined for Peshawar without knowing this might be their last journey; dozens were injured and killed by the bomb planted by…
Women in a mufti’s court
His face says it all. Mufti Mohammad Naeem, rector of one of Pakistan’s largest madressahs, is a deeply unhappy, exceedingly angry man who loses his temper too easily, and becomes…
An interesting mailbag
My last column for The News triggered a set of unusually thought-provoking responses which merit further discussion. The article argued that in the face of Modi’s politics, Pakistan has a…
The FSC in our hybrid society
Columbia University. Her dissertation was on the conflict between Pakistani liberals and the ulema and Islamists. There has recently been a lively debate between Feisal Naqvi, Salman Akram Raja, Afiya…
