Imran Khan has never has let a chance pass to flaunt religion, which he conveniently wore on his sleeve: the multiple prayer breaks from the dharna (sit-in) stage, the excessive call for religion in politics, the statement about the Taliban being our brothers, the same...
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...
For Imran Khan’s supporters, taking bravado, uncompromising positions is a virtue. For others not blinded by the cult of the ex-cricketer it is what has caused a loss of over 600 billion rupees to the brittle economy, weakened a frail democracy that had just begun...
Published in Daly Times on May 11th 2014 In 2011, I penned a column in this paper on Imran Khan: ‘Imran Khan: why I’m a believer’ (Daily Times, November 1, 2011), linking him to the greats like Faiz Ahmed Faiz and Iqbal for giving us then...
Published in The Daily Times on January 6th 2012 The founding father’s secular ideals have been sacrificed for the penumbra imagined and read into his ambiguous and general appeals to Islam. Imran Khan has already said enough that is open to misinterpretation After the Karachi jalsa (rally),...
Published in The Daily Times on November 1st 2011 Poets like Allama Iqbal identified the pulse of the disenfranchised Muslims in South Asia. Faiz Ahmed Faiz took that spirit to define more progressive causes for Pakistanis. Though not a poet, Imran Khan has captured that sense...