Syed Mansoor Hussain

Once people are deprived of any real fun and games, then they must find some way to have fun, public demonstrations of religious piety not being enough. Politics often becomes the only available relief from the daily drudgery of life, especially for the young and the ‘un’ or underemployed. So a long march, where transportation […]

As I watch the news media in the US and Israeli officials talk of the carnage in Gaza, it is indeed interesting how the powerful always use similar language to justify their actions against the oppressed. First, of course, is the attempt to blame the victims. As Israeli planes and tanks blow up schools, hospitals […]

The Israeli attack on Gaza, to say the least, is entirely despicable. Press coverage in the US media has been mostly pro-Israeli with an occasional bone thrown to the Palestinian ‘point of view’. That is and has been the norm ever since the start of the Arab-Israeli confrontation from the time the state of Israel […]

It is time to take off to some place where the maximum daily temperature is lower than the minimum daily temperature in Lahore and where ‘load shedding’, when mentioned if at all, has a slightly risqué connotation, entirely unconnected with electricity of the utilitarian sort. Of course, I will be without good Pakistani mangoes but […]

Writing too often about Pakistan and its crises is like overdosing on rich and highly spiced food. Many years ago, when I was much younger, having a six-course meal was often the done thing. Now, getting through a three-course meal is hard work. And if I plan to have dessert I have to skip the […]

One of the more interesting things about living a reasonably long life is to have met all sorts of people along the way. Having worked in the private sector as well as academia in the US and then having done that in Pakistan, in my opinion, doctors, professors, administrators and regular staff were about the […]

Last week, I promised my readers an entire column about the comic relief that could be provided by Mian Nawaz Sharif, the Prime Minister (PM) of Pakistan, but then circumstances intervened that have, by necessity, turned our attention to more serious matters. The circumstances are of course the military action against the terrorists, clearly not […]

The heat is hot, load shedding is as bad as it was a year ago, Pakistan is jittery but the good mangoes are here. Much is being said, openly or not, that change is in the air. So what should we expect? Three things are predictable: it will stay hot for the next few months, […]

Recently I have been having too many strange dreams. This could be due to incessant night time load shedding that wakes me up, after which if I do get back to sleep it is a fitful sleep. Or this could all just be due to a feeling that nobody is really running this poor country. […]

The Chief Minister (CM) of Punjab, in a speech in Lyallpur, recently recited a verse, which translated into English said, “You put the lights out — I put the lights back on.” Well, perhaps, the CM might have flipped a switch on but it is definitely on delay and the lights will most likely come […]