Let women work on January 3, 2018According to the World Bank, women workforce in Pakistan is the lowest in South Asia. India has 24.3 percent, Bangladesh 34.6 percent, Sri Lanka 30.9 percent, Nepal 50.8 percent and Bhutan 40.1 percent of working women. Pakistan’s percentile of the working women is 22.2 percent that is even worse than Somalia at 31.1 percent, Sudan […]
Where are the good Muslims? on November 28, 2017I am 45 years old. The journey of my consciousness began the same year General Ziaul Haq deposed then prime minster Bhutto in 1977. By the time my mother allowed me to fetch milk from the bazaar after the sunset in my little hometown, Malakwal, Punjab), Haq hanged Bhutto in 1979. The same year, Soviet […]
Madaris: the way forward — VI on November 20, 2017The triangular relationship between the state, society and madaris (religious seminaries) is amusingly interesting. Through the history of Pakistan, particularly after 1971, These three have worked together but in most cases, either two of these three would work together and leave the third one out. Having failed in delivering a strong political and social contract […]
Madaris: the way forward — V on November 13, 2017As stated in the beginning of the series, there are three parties to the challenge, and opportunity that the madaris (religious seminaries) present: State, madaris and the society. The latter has always been a recipient of the quarrels and disputes of the former two. The state and the society must understand and appreciate the fact […]
Madaris: the way forward — IV on November 7, 2017The problem never was with the madaris as institutions. The problem has always been and still is, with the leadership of the madaris. Being judgmental is always the easier, but the fact remains where it remains. And the fact is that a massive majority of the madaris and their leaders from all Muslim sects preferred […]
Madaris: the way forward — III on October 30, 2017Both seminaries at Deoband (1867) and Bareilvi (1904) that were established essentially as revivalist movements in Islam prescribed to the same lighthouse in Fiqh and Usooluddin (principles of the religious practice). Nauman Ibne Sabit, more famously known by the name of his daughter, Abu Hanifa (father of Hanifa). Both grew divergent and opponent in their […]
Madaris: the way forward — II on October 23, 2017Madaris (religious seminaries) have always existed in the pre and post partition Indian subcontinent. Prior to the establishment of two Muslim seminaries in Bareilly and Deoband in the pre-partition India, the madaris were largely housed inside the mosques and these installations primarily served as social facilitators mostly for Muslims and occasionally for non-Muslims in various […]
Madaris: the way forward — I on October 17, 2017The discussion on madaris in Pakistan has always been, and still is polarised. There essentially are three parties in the discussion: the state, society and the madaris themselves. The state has a love and hate relationship with these religious establishments. Both sides loved each other when they shared a common vision vis-à-vis Islamisation of Pakistan. […]
Religion in state and society on October 9, 2017In his book, Pakistan — A Hard Country (2011), Professor Anatol Lieven, an eminent professor at the King’s College London, used an interesting term for the Pakistani State: Negotiated State. Although, there have been many interpretations of this interesting idiom, he alone is rightly positioned to elaborate the political connotation of this term. But loosely, […]
Religion in state and society on October 9, 2017In his book, Pakistan — A Hard Country (2011), Professor Anatol Lieven, an eminent professor at the King’s College London, used an interesting term for the Pakistani State: Negotiated State. Although, there have been many interpretations of this interesting idiom, he alone is rightly positioned to elaborate the political connotation of this term. But loosely, […]