Cultural invasions
LAST week, Karachi and Lahore were invaded by cohorts of culture. In Karachi, the Endowment Fund Trust, managed by A. Hamid Akhund and Hameed Haroon, reincarnated Alexander the Great by…
Just imagine it
REIMAGINING Pakistan has been a work in progress since the very beginning. Projects, seminars and books on the theme have proliferated, especially over the last decade. Similarly, today we see…
The urge to be at the high table
AS theatre buffs will know, centre stage isn’t the centre of the stage per se, but any part of the proscenium where the action is unfolding. This is true of…
Eight lives short
“WHENEVER an elder dies, a library burns down.” When Dr B.N. Goswamy (India’s pre-eminent art historian) died and was cremated on Nov 17 in Chandigarh, a second Library of Alexandria…
Geoeconomic pivot
FOR nearly two years, the subject of geoeconomics has been discussed in Pakistan’s academic and official echelons. In an article published in this paper in December 2021, this writer had…
75 and tottering
AMPUTATED at 25, Pakistan is tottering at 75. Every institution is wobbling and governance has descended into a farce. The veils that had papered reality now lie on the floor…
Birds and bees
THERE is definitely more to learning about the ‘birds and bees’ than its conventional connotation. Though our unbridled population growth demands some learning and ‘unlearning’ on that count as well,…
RIP my ‘book mate’
FOR over 30 years we shared the same passion — our love of books. That means both of us loved to read and treasure them, though our tastes and even…
Who should make policy?
‘INCREMENTAL’ budgeting is generally practised by the government of Pakistan. That means that the Ministry of Finance’s recurrent budgets are not based on costing the latest development plans but, in…
The mystery cat
AT times like this, when faith in everything sane and normal and conventional is upturned by events, one is forced to disbelieve prose and escape into the reassurance of poetry.…
