Yasser Latif Hamdani

India, the “largest democracy” in the world, has resorted to brute force against Kashmiri people who have merely been asking for the fulfilment of the 68-year-old promise the world made to them i.e. the right of self-determination. Many people have been killed in cold blood, while others have been disabled and blinded by the use […]

Qandeel Baloch has been killed in the name of honour. Her only crime was that she was born in a society that refuses to allow women to live on their own terms. There never can be any honour in killing. Human life must be accepted as sacred and inviolable. Unless we do so, we will […]

Ali Shariati of Iran was one of the greatest philosophers and revolutionary Muslim modernists produced by the Islamic World. He was a well-intentioned political Islamist in a positive sense. His idea of Islam was not based on persecution and marginalisation of others. Interestingly, the country that honours him as its philosopher of the “Islamic Revolution,” […]

So the United Kingdom (UK) has chosen to leave the European Union (EU). As expected this momentous decision has caused tumult in the financial world, and has the world talking about what is next for the EU and for the UK itself. It is obviously an emotionally charged issue that has exposed the deep class, […]

A few years ago, the City District Government Lahore had taken the decision to name one of the underpasses on the Canal Bank Road after Jogindranath Mandal, the country’s first law minister. Tragically, that promise was never fulfilled. I have no doubt that it was not fulfilled because if Mandal’s story became widely known it […]

Pakistan has a joint electorate system based on one person, one vote. However, in order to ensure some representation to the religious minorities in Pakistan, 10 seats have been set aside for them. Anyone falling in the purview of the definition of non-Muslim in Article 260 of the Constitution can be elected on this seat. […]

As a child in the 1980s, I thought Muhammad Ali, the greatest boxer of all time who passed away on Friday, was a Pakistani. It was only later when he visited Pakistan that I realised that he was not. I had been fooled into thinking he was a Pakistani, because in Pakistan we saw him […]

The founder of this country, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, in unequivocal terms, stated in February 1948: “In any case Pakistan is not going to be a theocratic State to be ruled by priests with a divine mission.” This was a consistent position he had taken before and after the partition on at least 30 occasions, contrary […]

One of the most revolutionary undertakings by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk was the adoption of a slightly modified version of the Swiss Civil Code in Turkey, which banned polygamy and instituted equality of sexes in the Republic of Turkey. This was and continues to be an unprecedented step in Muslim history. Ataturk managed to pull it […]

Sadiq Khan, the British-Pakistani lawyer and politician, has managed to win the election for the position of London’s mayor. As expected Pakistanis around the world have greeted the news with jubilation and excitement. After all, a first generation son of a Pakistani bus driver has managed to become the first Muslim mayor of a major […]