Perhaps Pakistan needs more shady parking lots on September 8, 2019Ever since I have come back to my homeland Pakistan, a question keeps popping up every now and then – both in my own head and in my utterly mundane and overly formalized talks with both older and younger Pakistanis all of whom in their self-absorbed oblivion think of themselves as intellectual powerhouses out there […]
Ali Zafar, Meesha Shafi & the psycho-pathy of self-proclaimed players on May 3, 2019Recently an issue to which I given my grand postures of introspective intellectual pursuit would never deliberate on and rather save my time for more fruitful endeavors. But due to the tendencies of local media to focus on spurious details instead of conducting unbiased objective analysis, I feel this issue requires further analysis. The issue […]
The American empire — On the wane! on November 3, 2018Just recently, Brazil elected its new President and I read an American news website running a story headlined – “Brazil elects Trump-like candidate”. For someone like me who knows a few Brazilians this news was not a surprise. The chances of Bolsonaro getting elected were real and many Brazilians I knew saw it coming. I […]
Khashoggi and the crown prince on October 24, 2018For anyone who has not been under a rock for the past few days – they probably must have heard of the news that has been making the rounds: The Saudis have done something only the Saudis could do. Yet despite their prolific history of blatant human rights abuses, it seems this time the Saudis […]
Pakistan- US Relationship: It’s complicated! on September 20, 2018When Donald Trump became the President of the United States of America in 2016, it caused a political shift that shook the very core of the international world order. The election results came as a shock for most political commentators in the U.S. and around the globe. Perhaps the best example of the utter unexpected […]
Imran — the introvert socialite becomes PM on August 9, 2018The year is 1990. The venue is the Sydney Cricket Ground. Clad in the colourful lime green attire — thanks to Mr Kerry Packer and the much-needed attractiveness he brought into cricket — is Imran Khan, running in to bowl the first delivery of the game’s last over against Australia. With four runs needed of […]
Imran Khan and Pakistan’s ‘half-liberals’ on June 30, 2018Over the past half a century or so, a peculiar societal group has emerged in Pakistan. They’re what I will call in this article the ‘half-liberals’ of Pakistan. Honestly, I am too young to know where the precise beginnings of this group lie, but retrospectively, I think the large-scale dissemination of knowledge and cultural trends […]
Liable or liberation? on June 22, 2018A few years back I had the chance of meeting Reham Khan, when she was still married to the enigma that is Imran Khan. I am pretty sure she doesn’t remember me; I was a young professional struggling my way through my first job out of college. Honestly speaking, we barely interacted. I was there […]
Pakistan’s Game of Thrones on June 6, 2018A few days ago, one of my colleagues at my university asked me a question that eventually got me thinking. In the often childlike curiosity that is typical of someone who has never visited Pakistan, he asked, once he was done gauging his tone for political correctness: “What is the politics in Pakistan like?” You […]
Musings on alienation, roots and civilisation on April 18, 2018Over the past few years, I have gone through a transformation that has fundamentally shaken me to the core. In my attempts to get to United States from Pakistan and pursue greener academic pastures, I have also traversed the path of going from ‘East’ to ‘West.’ It is partly because of the cultural adjustments that […]