American complicity
US President Biden’s speech on August 16 was a contortionist, factually-inaccurate, face-saving exercise in the wake of the worst political, martial, economic, and foreign policy disaster in recent decades. Biden…
Pakistan’s true role in Afghanistan
In less than two weeks, the situation in Afghanistan has changed dramatically. Many people have been taken by surprise by the swiftness of the fall of the Islamic Republic of…
Textbooks of ‘respectability’
Who we are as individuals depends in large measure on the combined effects of many contributing factors. Our educational experiences, cultural and social influences of family and friends, books read,…
Pakistan’s Afghan policy
The unconditional withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan and the looming threat of a civil war has generated an intriguing debate on the policy choices confronting Pakistan. Islamabad’s stated Afghan…
The roots of hate
THE brutal murder of a Pakistani-origin family in the city of London, Ontario, by 20-year-old Nathaniel Veltman caused a wave of outrage in Canada. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau openly condemned it as an act…
Land and violence
There is much outrage over the Supreme Court’s decision of June 14 in which the bench declared the leases of more than 10,000 houses fake with a stroke of a…
A scholar of peace (Part – I)
When, as a young man looking for guidance, Wahiduddin moved from one source of knowledge to another, he realised that the books of the time were not sufficient. So he…
Bazaar traders in urban Punjab
The informal economy in Pakistan is one of most-understudied phenomena despite its huge prevalence. Marketplace (bazaar) traders are an important part of the informal economy of the country and sociologist…
The outrage machinery
IT was hard to figure out what to write this week. Not that there was a shortage of issues but it is occasionally (perhaps frequently?) difficult to figure out what…
Politics, ambiguity and righteousness
Steven Spielberg’s ‘Lincoln’ is one of my favourite films of all time; Daniel Day-Lewis’ dazzling performance as the titular character and my general love for Lincoln as a political figure…
