Syed Kamran Hashmi

Never before in history has a single snapshot shaken up the whole nation and ignited a powerful movement across the country as it did in Pakistan after the incident of March 9, 2007. The photograph, which was taken a few days later, portrayed the former Chief Justice (CJ) of Pakistan, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, being manhandled […]

Travelling can be a great learning experience for anyone; on that we all agree. However, it can be an experience of a lifetime if it is sponsored by the state. Everything, in that case, comes free and handy: private jets, exclusive cuisines, luxury palaces, official dinners, security protocol, upscale shopping and at least one meeting […]

After getting their boarding card at the airport, most Pakistani men are not too concerned about the safety of their flight, the timing of their journey or the risk of losing personal items. Instead, their minds are busy speculating something much more alluring: the not so improbable companionship of a pretty young girl during the […]

You know exactly who he is when you see him. A man with a long scruffy beard, a trimmed down mustache, a long shirt and a short shalwar, a taqiyah cap on his head, a prayer rug in one hand and a lota in the other is easy to recognise as a member of the […]

Can you name some of the philosophers that Pakistan has produced since 1947? Most people will not be able to respond to this question, including myself. Even when asked to name just three, we would still be lost, disappointed in our inability to list as few as three or five. Out of despair, we may […]

Can you imagine Jews crying over the death of Adolf Hitler in the Second World War? Or envision Americans sobbing after the assassination of Osama bin Laden, their enemy number one, and the leader of al Qaeda behind the 9/11 attacks? And if they did, would their behaviour be considered normal? Absolutely not. In a […]

Pathetic, despicable and disgusting, even if we put all of them together in one basket, they can only describe one-tenth of what really had happened that night on the television show On the front, hosted by Kamran Shahid. The Dunya News programme was supposed to discuss the book written by Malala Yousafzai — the girl […]

When Mian Nawaz Sharif appointed Ata-ul-Haq Qasmi as the ambassador of Pakistan in Norway, I honestly did not think too much about that nomination. My reason then was and still is simple: after a long decade of relentless power struggle, administrative immaturity and political intolerance, it was not considered to be that big a problem. […]

Do you know the real reason for the invention of toothpaste? If you think it was formulated to clean your teeth, protect them from decay, revitalise their shine, improve the health of your gums, reduce the incidence of dental abscesses and save your life, then you are wrong. You, like most innocent Muslims, have been […]

With great confidence I can predict bright future for Pakistan, a future that is not going to be in the hands of incompetent and dishonest politicians anymore. From now on it will neither be subdued by military generals nor will it be overruled by the Supreme Court judges. It will not be bogged down by […]