And then there were none on March 6, 2011One by one, all the figures who stand up for the rule of law, democracy and decency in Pakistan are being assassinated. Just like in Agatha Christie’s famous novel (originally known as Ten Little Niggers), in which the 10 guests on Soldier Island are, one by one, eliminated, until the last one commits suicide in […]
Drawing lines of partition on February 27, 2011We have all read the (or at least one) story of partition. We have all read about how it came about — the Lahore Resolution, the growing tensions between the Muslim League and Congress, the instrumentalisation by both of their respective constituencies, the personal enmity between Jinnah and Nehru, especially after the failure of the […]
Justice? Did you say justice? on February 19, 2011Pakistan is perhaps the only country on earth to take philosophy, and Aristotle in particular, seriously enough to have made it a state policy. In book V of his Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle laments the generality of the law, which by its very essence cannot accommodate specific differences and the individual circumstances of a crime or […]
Game over on January 23, 2011“Game over”, read the banners on Habib Bourguiba Avenue in Tunis two weeks ago. Game over for Ben Ali and his kleptomaniac family. Game over for a leader who had systematically pillaged and looted Tunisia for over two decades, while denying his people liberty and decent livelihood. Game over for the giant with clay feet, […]
The naked emperors on January 16, 2011The aftermath of Salmaan Taseer’s shooting is so very depressing. In a sense, it mirrors the aftermath of the Arizona shooting in the US, where a young man killed six people and injured 14 others, including Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. In both cases, we see the more progressive elements of the country embark on massive soul-searching. […]
Mumtaz Qadri and the ninth circle of hell on January 9, 2011Salmaan Taseer’s assassination is an infinitely tragic event in so many ways; for his family and friends, for Punjab, for the PPP, for human rights, and perhaps above all for the much-beleaguered state of increasingly undemocratic and violence-prone Pakistan. That a politician could be killed for opposing what is obviously an unjust law is mind-numbing; […]
Largesse on January 2, 2011Giving has a bad reputation. Giving has become an indication of weakness, or of stupidity. Giving, without getting anything in return? Are you crazy? No offence to bankers (well, just a little), but they have managed to magically transform what during millennia had been considered vices by all great moral systems and religions — greed, […]