One country, several systems on October 12, 2017Since its inception Pakistan has always decried that ‘external forces’ are trying to destabilise and dismember it. This fear has led the state to become suspicious of all regional movements for rights or autonomy, and everything which does not fit the state’s narrative. This mind-set has not only promoted conspiracy theories and made stars out […]
Extremism in universities on September 19, 2017The recent letter by Chairman Senate Mian Raza Rabbani to the Vice Chancellor of Karachi University regarding his reservations about the university sharing student information with intelligence agencies has reignited the debate about extremism on university campuses. It is no hidden secret that many terrorists are university graduates, and most belong to the sciences, IT […]
Killing our daughters quietly on September 10, 2017A long time ago in Arabia, in an age Muslims call Jahiliyya (meaning ‘time of ignorance’), people used to kill or bury alive their infant daughters, since in the Arab culture of the time, daughters were a burden and embarrassment at best. With the advent of Islam, female infanticide was banned and especially since the […]
Muslims as sanitary workers on June 19, 2017Birmingham in the 1960’s was a growing city with a lot of industrial activity, prosperity and development. Hence it was a natural magnet for low skilled and unskilled migrants from Commonwealth countries who were looking for better opportunities abroad. Pakistan and India, being the largest Commonwealth countries of the time, counted for the bulk of […]
Urdu language and Pakistani identity on June 7, 2017 Speaking at the convocation of Dacca University in March 1948, the Quaid-e-Azam emphasised that he wanted Urdu to be the sole national language of Pakistan because it had been ‘nurtured by a hundred million Muslims of this sub-continent’ and that it is a language which ‘embodies the best that is in Islamic culture and […]