M Aamer Sarfraz

We live in a country where a physicist hogs sociopolitical issues, medical doctors host talk shows, and the army lectures on economy. Our dictators were democratic, politicians are dictators, journalists become administrators, and teachers deal in property. Why and how long do we plan to remain imprisoned in this gridlock of national contradictions and live […]

  The Rohingya refugee crisis has scratched old wounds. I noticed Jamaat-e-Islami and others on the streets, and a muted response from our government. Further afield, there is an understandably reluctant Hasina Wajid, a divided Muslim Ummah and a proverbial late response from the world community. We have been here before. I never knew East […]

Nawaz Sharif is back to how he stared his last term — not smiling. I feel for him, as repeated failures can become a panoptic stain on the soul and create all-embracing pathos. In fleeting moments, he must be thinking why he did not quit when he was ahead. Some of us had conveyed it […]

  As a medical specialist, I believe homeopath is a person who dishes out sugar pills till the patient either dies or is cured by nature. However, there are thousands of qualified and unqualified people, including friends and relatives, who practice homeopathy sincerely and millions claim to have ‘benefitted’ from it. Since science is the […]

There are some things so serious in life that you have to laugh at them. This is the case with Pakistani politics at the moment. People like Hafiz Hussain Ahmed used to crack a joke to lighten the mood, but they have gone in the trenches. Call me an eccentric, but I like those in […]

  In an ideal world, politics and cheating would never be mentioned in the same breath. Because, politics is about implementation of best ideas for the progress and well-being of the society/state, and cheating refers to way out of unpleasant situations by dishonest means. Unfortunately, politicians have a history of featuring heavily in all forms […]

  In an ideal world, politics and cheating would never be mentioned in the same breath. Because, politics is about implementation of best ideas for the progress and well-being of the society/state, and cheating refers to way out of unpleasant situations by dishonest means. Unfortunately, politicians have a history of featuring heavily in all forms […]

Fantasising about a happier world is a common reaction to social change. Even in the comedies of Aristophanes set in classical Athens, characters used to dream of a lost day. The past is always with us, used and re-used for political, aesthetic and cultural ends. No matter what life we choose, we cannot escape the […]

It is said that one cannot think well, love well, and sleep well if one has not dined well. Eating itself, however, derives from the physical necessity called hunger. Not anymore. We now eat because we are tired or bored, happy or sad, or just because it is time to eat. Many of us don’t […]

Political uncertainty can be challenging, regardless of your beliefs or where you might fall on the political spectrum. As the bitterly fought Panama Leaks legal action nears climax, the verbal aggression dominating the political atmosphere is making everyone feel apocalyptic. Political friends, across the party divide, are also feeling traumatised for continuously living through this […]