Dr Mahjabeen Islam

Long marches and sit-ins are the last thing an already chaotic and impoverished Pakistan needs. So, I was indignant when the marches by Tahirul Qadri and Imran Khan began. More than two weeks in, their demands remain unmet but they have been dramatic catalysts in changing the mindset, opinions and expectations of Pakistanis. We learned […]

Pots have a habit of calling kettles black. The Punjab police killing unarmed PAT workers in Model Town is just as egregious and criminal as US police killing a minimum of two unarmed black men every week. The US has no room to anoint itself as the champion of human rights when a significant portion […]

Pictures of dead children do not lie. News and photos of the massive destruction and massacre in Gaza are reaching all corners of the world and the tide of public opinion is changing. Jewish fortunes have changed dramatically over the last 100 years. Jews were marginalised before the Second World War and, flouting the letter […]

All men are not created equal. One Israeli life is equivalent to 200 Palestinian lives. And, once again, the world has better things to do than stop Israel’s genocide. It was not the kidnapping of three Israeli teenagers that started it. Two Palestinian boys, acting on their own, kidnapped the three teenagers hoping to use […]

The military operation in Waziristan was a long time coming. Great gains against entrenched terrorists have been made with air and now ground offensives. Fortunately, Zarb-e-Azb has support all across the country. The Pakistan Protection Ordinance (PPO) 2014 was just passed by the National Assembly giving dramatic and sweeping powers to the government in its […]

A bulldozer, stone throwing protestors, security forces, smoke and firing are reminiscent of Palestine. But this was Lahore and these were not rubber bullets but live rounds, not fired in the air but directly into abdomens and chests. The only commonality: unarmed protestors.The police arrived late at night to remove barricades outside the residence of […]

American Dervish Author: Ayad Akhtar Publisher: Little, Brown and Co. (January 2012) 357 pages I have always preferred non-fiction. Ayad Akhtar’s entrancing novel American Dervish has caused me to shift a bit toward fiction. The protagonist, like the author, grows up in the US’s Midwest and the passion and certitude in the pages makes the […]

Republicans in the US have been raked over the coals these past few months; the clowning around on the presidential hopefuls’ stage would make even a Democrat cringe. And the gaffes of the wannabes in the Pakistani paradigm are no different, except that the clowning there seems to include the prominent of all parties. Betrayed […]

Reeling from the massive violence across Britain, Prime Minister David Cameron blamed pockets of society that had not only broken down but were “sick” and that “poor parenting” was responsible for the looting. His diagnosis is painfully accurate; unfortunately the treatment cannot be surgically swift. For children are products of circumstance and training both in […]

From individuals to institutions, Pakistani credibility hangs near zero. One wonders whether the tall talk of its politicians, the disconnectedness of some media personalities and the false promises of its tailors have travelled to infect parliament, making it a democratic body in name but entirely paralysed in action. Karachi metamorphosed into a war-zone rapidly but […]