Syed Kamran Hashmi

How to define a Muslim is one of the most daunting tasks that you can set about to accomplish, a riddle with no clear solution, an enigma. Compared to that, determining who is not a Muslim comes handy: a follower of any religion including Islam that you do not agree with one hundred percent. For […]

In response to bad behaviour of children, if parents lose their temper they invariably teach their offspring the very lesson they did not intend them to learn: that getting angry and being out of control is justified, and is the right thing to do. It does not matter afterwards how often they advise their children […]

One of the most talked about politicians of Pakistan in media after, of course, the chairman of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Imran Khan, is not the leader of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, or Prime Minister of Pakistan, Mian Nawaz Sharif, or his younger brother, Chief Minister of Punjab Shehbaz Sharif. Instead it is […]

Finally Altaf Hussein, the founder and the controversial leader of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) has made everyone’s life easy by saying the ‘magic words’. Now it is easy for Farooq Sattar to take over the party, at least for a little while; easy for the Pak Sur Zameen party led by Mustafa Kamal to justify […]

Once voted back into power, experts thought Mian Nawaz Sharif with his decades of experience would emerge as a different politician: focused, mature and prepared for institutional reforms the country so badly needs. That he would, at least, this time rely upon people empowering them at the grassroots level not only to protect himself but […]

Should thought crimes — a term introduced by George Orwell in his classic book 1984 — be punishable by law? By thought crimes, the renowned novelist and journalist did not mean the intention to hurt someone else. It is in reference to unorthodox thought processes of certain individuals and their ideas that challenge the societal […]

Even Steve Jobs made a mistake in his assessment of Segway, a two-wheeler electronic machine on which the driver stands upright to commute from one place to another. Invented by Dean Kamen who was known as America’s Batman for his innovation and entrepreneurship, it is a fascinating device, no doubt about it. Soundless, smooth and […]

Whether they voice it in public or just whisper behind closed doors, Muslims in America, regardless of their financial or educational background, live under constant fear. It is the fear of being monitored, of being followed, and of being investigated. They reckon that even their casual conversations are being recorded somewhere. And once the anti-Muslim […]

Even when the supporters of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) wish to see a strong leader in Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari — the one who draws the disappointed voter of central Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa back to the party — the old jiyalas (zealots) understand that the grandson of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto lacks the political maturity of […]

Even if you resist an investment advice from them, and even if they do their best to respect your wish, a suggestion to buy a plot or a file in the Defence Housing Authority (DHA) would still slip out of their lips like a piece of gold dropping from the jewelry box as its lid […]