Afghanistan: talking peace
Friday, Kabul, Afghanistan: as he walked down the stairs of his office – holding a cane in one hand, I stepped forward to shake hands with him. About six feet…
Engaging the Americans
The Biden Administration is less than a month old, but already it is knee-deep in the quicksand that is the American war in Afghanistan. A full US troop withdrawal by…
Perils inherent in hybrids
THE utterly unfounded rumours, for what else could they be called, about an in-house change in Islamabad and the unfolding of some minus-one formula, have finally been laid to rest…
Competitions that will shape KTP
The Karachi Transformation Plan (KTP) is an impressive allocation of financial resources and top-line political will in favour of a transformed Karachi. But very much like Pakistan’s Covid-19 miracle, it…
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…
Ayaz Melo: pride of Sindh
Ayaz Melo in Hyderabad has become a regular winter festival for notable literati from across the country. For nearly a decade now, women such as Amar Sindhu, Arfana Mallah, Haseen…
A state of many cases
‘Never a dull moment’ is a cliche, even more so for Pakistani politics. How could we have a dull moment when there is a steady stream of cases and audio/video…
Wit and wisdom
I WISH I did not have to write today’s column. Not because of its content but because of the circumstances. The fact that thousands of people felt personally bereft when…
Literature, politics, and resistance: Part – II
In the first part of this column yesterday, we discussed some personal accounts by political activists and leaders. My definition of resistance literature is broad and includes biographical literature too,…
Jang and literature
In the first part of this series, we discussed how ‘Jang’, founded by Mir Khalil-ur-Rahman established itself as the foremost Urdu newspaper in the country. In this second and last…
