Some 150,000 schools across Pakistan commemorated I Am Not Malala Day. Walks and press conferences lit up the educational landscape of this country. It blacked everything else out though. It darkened everything that Malala stands for: education of the girl child, education for all, books...
When Hassan Nisar, social commentator and journalist, says that the most worthy thing the Muslims of the subcontinent invented was the charpoy (traditional, woven bed), he is not too far off the mark. The fact is that mainstream Muslims have even less to be known for:...
Forgive me for not sympathising with the passengers of the Karachi to Islamabad Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flight that got delayed for hours because an ex-minister arrived late. In all the rejoicing going on about how VIP culture got a kick in the shin by...
The politics of protest orchestrated by Imran Khan and Tahirul Qadri have defined many chasms between the well-governed society of our dreams and that of the real facts on the ground. The worst thing about it is that it has disclosed this chilling absence of women...
When one’s voice is muted, it helps to be introspective. It helps to wonder if it was silenced by society and the general construct of what is acceptable speech or if you had given up on your beliefs voluntarily, the equivalent of slicing your tongue....
Step into the future. Here is a chip that you can place at the top of your spine in the base of your head and it will record, and perhaps even publish, your thoughts and your beliefs. The world would self-destruct. Civilisation would only exist...
One has to wait for the whole year to pass in order to see utter mayhem and madness on the streets. But one does see it eventually. The month of Ramzan brings with it a combination of general frustration and low blood sugar, ideally set...
Published in Daily Times on June 29th 2014. The Punjab police’s brutality against Tahirul Qadri’s Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) workers was unpardonable. It led to 11 killed and over 80 injured. With all the hunters of our people out there, the police being part of the...
Published in The Guardian on May 29th 2014 On 27 May 2014, as Farzana Parveen lay dead on the uneven floor of the Lahore high court, it was not easy to ignore the blood-stained brick next to her. A chador she had worn that morning covered her crushed...
D-Chowk is the protest spot of Islamabad. It looks like a place where the earth has churned up concrete barriers and barbed wires. On one of the barriers, someone had graffitid: ‘Stop Shia genocide’. A few days later, it was black charcoaled, later it faded and...
