Pakistans sovereignty on December 29, 2014Last Tuesday’s article, ‘Killing carte blanche’ (Daily Times, December 23, 2014), elicited a great deal of interest with regards to the domestic application of sovereignty, which entitles the state exclusively to maintain legitimate means of using force in a territorially limited population. Along with this prerogative of the state is the responsibility that goes with […]
A week in Delhi on December 8, 2014The spread of terrorism and militant groups across the globe has created an unsettling pattern of abductions and demands for ransom of foreign individuals. We have seen this happen in the case of the Islamic State (IS), a group gaining notoriety because of the brutal beheadings it carries out of US and UK nationals in […]
qasfhs on December 1, 2014On the invitation of my old colleague from Gordon College, Rawalpindi (1972-1973), and dear friend Raoof Hasan, I joined the Regional Peace Institute’s delegation to New Delhi where for two days (November 20 and 21, 2014), we discussed with our Indian counterparts the hurdles and challenges that exist in the normalisation of relations between India […]
Did S P Singhas vote win Punjab for Pakistan in 1947? on November 24, 2014The barbaric burning to death of a young Christian couple by demented vigilantes on the grounds of alleged blasphemy is yet again a reminder of the fact that Pakistan is a failed state insofar as protecting its citizens is concerned. Protecting citizens in a war is not the only responsibility of the state; this has […]
The slaughterhouse called World War I on November 17, 2014This year marks the 100th anniversary of the First World War. In Europe, governments, universities, intellectual forums, the print media and television networks have constantly been discussing the war. So much attention is understandable because World War I (WWI) brought out the worst features of western civilisation and wreaked havoc upon its people on a scale […]
From Kemalism to conservative Islam on October 13, 2014Revolutions take place when an existing social order is no longer able to reproduce itself and new social and political forces are successfully able to challenge the status quo. Almost invariably, thorough revolutions entail violent upheaval. The Kemalist revolution was not based on class-against-class, it was premised on modernity versus medievalism. The most serious revolt […]
bhy on September 29, 2014A deviation from the series on Turkey is being made this Tuesday. Some friends want me to express my views on the ongoing dharna (sit-in) in Islamabad. I would have preferred to wait and see where all this will end, find out which way the camel finally settles. However, during dinner last evening at friend […]
Ataturks revolution II on September 22, 2014The founder of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, particularly devoted his attention to the liberation of women from the fetters of harem culture and overall segregation of men and women. The new Civil Code of 1926 abolished polygamy. A minimum age of 18 was introduced for marriage. Equal rights of divorce, custody of children and […]
Ataturks revolution I on September 15, 2014Mustafa Kemal Ataturk (May 19, 1881-November 10, 1938) has been both admired and reviled passionately. However, nobody can deny that he was one of the greatest reformers of the 20th century. He and his colleagues had had a long and bitter confrontation with European powers but, simultaneously, they admired the transformations the scientific and industrial […]
Caliphate, Ataturk and the modern era on September 8, 2014I have argued in my previous articles that no general political or constitutional theory exists in Islam. Equally, in the last sermon delivered by Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) in a huge public gathering where thousands of his followers had assembled during the Hajj in 632 CE, he had nothing to say about temporal succession. On the […]