Multiple fronts for Jinnah’s Pakistan on December 4, 2017Today those, like me, who still believe in Jinnah’s inclusive democratic Pakistan have to fight the intellectual battle on many fronts. We have to fight against the right wing Mullahs of all sects who shamelessly insist that the country was created so that their exclusionary brand of Islam could be imposed on it. We have […]
Reclaiming Pakistan and Islam on November 27, 2017At the time of the writing of this article, the police in Islamabad have already begun its operation against Faizabad protesters. There are reports of sporadic protests from all over the country but the government has taken the extraordinary step of taking off all news channels off line. Furthermore Facebook and Twitter have been blocked […]
Dharna in Faizabad on November 20, 2017What is happening in Islamabad with Faizabad Dharna, still ongoing at the time of the writing article, is a disturbing development, which needs to be appreciated better by the powers that be in our country. Barelvi Sunnis were long held to be the Low Church or softer face of Sunni Islam in Pakistan. This does […]
The role of Muslim identity on November 13, 2017In my article Republic of Pakistan; Jinnah’s Pakistan (October 30, 2017), I argued that it is about time that we became the Republic of Pakistan and gave up this obsession with the undefined concept of an “Islamic Republic” which has only confused the idea of equal citizenship in this country. In it I had relied […]
Dina Jinnah on November 6, 2017Mr Jinnah’s only daughter Dina Jinnah, whose married name was Dina Wadia, passed away in New York on 2nd November 2017 at the age of 98. Thus ends our direct connection with the man who we hold up as our founding father. Yet for 69 years since the passing of the Quaid-e-Azam as we call […]
Republic of Pakistan, Jinnah’s Pakistan on October 30, 2017Previous few articles in this space have dealt the idea that if Pakistan’s constitution should be based on fundamental human principles of equality and fair play, as expressed by the founder of the nation, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, on 11 August 1947. He clearly said that religion of a citizen would be his business alone and […]
Letter from deathbed on October 23, 2017This past week I entrusted my life to the most skilled set of surgical hands at the Aga Khan University (AKU) in Karachi (named after Aga Khan, the first president of the All India Muslim League). A monstrous tumour on the right lobe of the brain was plaguing my existence. Given time, it could have […]
What lies ahead for Ahmadis on October 16, 2017In my article last week, I argued that my religion or religious beliefs, or lack thereof, are not the business of the state, and I quoted Jinnah’s promise made explicitly to all people of Pakistan on 11 August 1947 to this effect. In response, a number of readers wrote in to say that Pakistan was […]
My religion is not the business of the state on October 9, 2017This last week when the Electoral Reforms Bill was introduced, someone — someone who is gifted with both heart and a first rate brain — removed the ‘religious oath’ from the bill. It was about time. What kind of nation state in the 21st century is still bothered by what the personal faith of an […]
Pakistan’s international legal woes on October 3, 2017It is a great shame that the country that counts amongst its founders lawyers like Muhammad Ali Jinnah and Zafrullah Khan today finds itself without adequate representation and legal counsel at various international forums when it comes to commercial matters, being handed defeat after defeat. Many of Pakistan’s woes in the field of international commercial […]