On that fateful August day, nearly thirty years ago, by chance I had stayed home from work owing to an upset stomach. Apart from that, my telephone was out of order (these were the days before cell phones). Feeling better towards tea-time, I made myself comfortable on the sofa in my lounge, where my little […]
The wilted blossoms of May
Fifty years ago this week, on May 20, 1968, a volatile period of civil unrest began in Paris. Eventually, the government of General Charles de Gaulle was brought to a standstill. This would inspire youth-led revolutionary upsurges that were to spring up in many countries around the world… including here in our own Pakistan. The […]
Mayday for the left?
Exactly 132 years ago today, on the first of May 1886, a rally took place in the Haymarket Square of the American city of Chicago. The participants — mostly common labourers, artisans, small merchants and impoverished immigrants — were protesting an incident in which police had opened fire and killed four striking workers who had […]
The Babu narrative
A year ago, an inflamed mob brutally assaulted 23-year-old Mashal Khan with bludgeons and bricks on the pretext of blasphemy in Abdul Wali Khan University. They beat him to a literal pulp, and then shot him dead. Many of these young men filmed the lynching on their cell phones as it took place, presumably to […]
Perceptions of corruption
No, this piece is not primarily about the famous Index published by Transparency International — although that will also come up in a bit. It is about governmental probity in this Islamic Republic that we and 200 million other souls inhabit. The corruption of certain members of our political elite, we are told, is the […]
The evolution and regression of a state
In my last piece in these pages (Trump’s War, March 2, 2018), I had endeavoured to show how the present war in Afghanistan, beginning in 1978 as Zia’s War and morphing through various forms until today it can be seen as Trump’s War, has already lasted nearly 40 years. The piece further suggested that the […]
Trump’s war
How does one name a war? Well, usually a war is named after the country in which it is principally fought — such as the Korean War, the Crimean War, or the American Civil War. Or it is named after one or both antagonists, as in the Sikh Wars or the Franco-Prussian War. Is there […]
The fundamentalist and the extremist
Some years ago, I wrote in this newspaper about the Pesh Imam from a large mosque near my home, where the prayer-time congregations comprise numerous members of Karachi’s uber-bourgeoisie alongside other ordinary mortals. “The frequent discourse of the Pesh Imam,” I had written, “concerns the Houris in Paradise, in praise of which he becomes quite […]
Of big and little red buttons
In true Trumpian style, the swaggering buffoon whom the Americans call President has threatened a wave of nuclear strikes on the tiny nation of North Korea, boasting to that country’s own paranoid nitwit that, “My button is bigger than yours.” Shortly thereafter, the American state of Hawaii, the state nearest the Asian mainland, and within […]
Why do coups happen?
From the recent teapot storm of statements and counter-statements between such worthies as our army chief, Chief Justice and various ministers, most commentators have conjectured that while the institutions of our fragile state may or may not be jockeying to enlarge their individual areas of influence, democracy and the constitution are quite safe. No coup […]