The world is witnessing an epoch making rise of a robust civil rights and Pakhtun Nationalist movement from the north western parts of Pakistan. More and more people, especially the middle class youth, increasingly associate themselves beyond tribal, regional, partisan, gender and class identities with the narrative of this loosely organised and inclusive uprising that […]
Diminishing an enlightened legacy
Academia and political analysts throughout the world use framework of hegemony constructed by Antonio Gramsci and analysis of the culture of silence by Paulo Frere to understand silencing of voices raised for the aspirations of masses who claim nationhood. Seen in this context, one is not surprised to see recent pouring in of pieces after […]
Looking for enlightenment post-Mashal
The gory incident of lynching at Mardan University has shaken almost everyone who is a humanist at heart. On that dark day, the face of humanity turned out to be that of a blood-sucking monster. More troubling was the realisation that this happened in a land that carries legacies of universal love and non-violence […]
Afghanistan in the eye of the storm
Afghan officials were rightly concerned when a conference on Afghanistan was organised in Moscow without their presence in December 2016. China, Pakistan and Russia had participated in the tripartite consultation while the United States also wasn’t invited. To dispel the impression that Pakistan was trying to forge an alliance to counter the perceived Indo-Afghan partnership, […]
Peace attempt in tatters
Pakistan has once again seen a rise in militant activities in the recent days. In the space of only three months, spectacles of terrorism have rocked Peshawar, Charsadda, Sehwan and Lahore among other cities across the country. The latest in the string of these deadly attacks struck a women’s mosque in Parachinar, Kurram Agency […]
Civil society and civic life in Afghanistan
The evolution of the concept of civil society over the past several hundred years makes an interesting study. Hobbes, Locke, Hegel, Marx, Tocqueville and Gramsci took hard efforts to construct the concept of civil society at various phases and eras of political thought and social evolution. Though all these intellectuals have developed different conceptual frameworks […]
Afghanistan as heart of Asia
Perhaps nothing might be more relevant than the well-quoted verses by Dr Allama Iqbal regarding the strategic importance of Afghanistan located between the South and Central Asia. Besides having an easy and less expensive land route access to Central Asia, Afghanistan has easy access to Europe through Turkey, West Asia through Iran, land access to […]
Scapegoating Afghan refugees?
The issue of integration and repatriation of refugees has been a subject ofhot debate around the globe for quite some time. More and more people around the world have started realising the fact that the scars in the hearts of refugee families due to leaving their hearths and homes in the midst of natural or […]