Mehboob Qadir

Bubonic plague (black death) and Wahabist fanaticism hit the Indian subcontinent simultaneously by the mid 19th century. The plague claimed millions of lives in South Asia and China, and has kept reappearing from time to time, last in Surat. However, the fanaticism that rode over the back of the Wahabist brute has continued unabated ever […]

Along with their tanks, screaming jet fighters, Hind helicopters and Vodka, the Soviet invasion brought in a deadly virus into Afghanistan, which infected millions of already underdeveloped minds in that country as well as Pakistan. It befuddles the rationalising faculty of the brain and disrupts clear vision. Thus it creates a walking zombie in the […]

Along with their tanks, screaming jet fighters, Hind helicopters and Vodka, the Soviet invasion brought in a deadly virus into Afghanistan, which infected millions of already underdeveloped minds in that country as well as Pakistan. It befuddles the rationalising faculty of the brain and disrupts clear vision. Thus it creates a walking zombie in the […]

Sense has to do with the capacity to feel and sensitivity is its prime mover. It is a superior virtue, standing next to compassion among nobler human virtues, and it stems directly from empathy, care and common sense. It entails a committed deference to the other’s sentiments related to matters held either dear, delicate or […]

Pakistan is predominantly Muslim, but the Muslim rule for a thousand years in the region did little to change or dilute our collective shadiness. The British rule, followed by rising Indian military power, seems to add to our dark national obsession. The maddening clamour has reached a pitch where seemingly well-groomed and well-informed men also […]

Like a delusive people, Muslims in general and we in Pakistan in particular are trapped in the numbing nostalgia of our past Muslim glory. Nostalgia helps one to reflect and reminisce, therefore by itself is not so debilitating but there are a few problems here. First, we tend to easily forget that history always has […]

My Lord, let me speak. And speak of a case that for more perceptive minds is like an evolving tragedy, in order to give you a flavour of what is made to pass as due process of law here. Mother, father and child; the nuclear family unit, is the basic brick upon which the structure […]

Kingdoms and countries anchor themselves in the history of the territory that they command and create a geographic identity to define their borders. And within those two parameters they go on to set up state administration and an organised society where commerce, education, science and culture, arts and crafts and all that goes for a […]

Our courts are formal and procedure-ruled premises where a strict protocol is required to be observed. To add more spice, our judges have become quick to take umbrage and deliver a scathing snub to a wayward petitioner, a bound witness or whoever happens to be at the business end of the judicial muzzle. The frequency […]

Gratefulness and an effortless nobility of mind to use appropriate and decent language for censure and/or praise are signs of civilised minds and a nation sufficiently mature and sure of itself. The rest is either cattle or a pathetic rabble. The malevolence of the matter could be further compounded if the offending mouth represents a […]