The secular Jinnah on April 20, 2016Our Urdu press, conspiratorial, nationalist and rightwing, is full of nazriati (ideological) warriors. This article is a rebuttal of two of the most popular standard-bearers of the ghairat brigade and the so-called Nazaria-e-Pakistan (idea of Pakistan). In one of his recent columns (because in our country it is perfectly alright for in-service civil servants to […]
The 1974 NA proceedings on the Ahmadi issue on April 19, 2016The Supreme Court judgment in the Asghar Khan case has exposed the deep state completely. The deep state seeks to control the electoral process to an extent that only those suitable to it and its interests can come forward. The Asghar Khan case is just the tip of the iceberg. I am sure. Asghar Khan […]
Malala! s on April 19, 2016In 1941, while encouraging Muslim women to become active socially, educationally and politically, Mr Jinnah, the founder, maker and philosopher of this country of ours, famously said, “There are two powers in the world: one is the sword and the other is the pen. There is a great competition and rivalry between the two. There […]
Towards Hotel Mohenjodaro on April 18, 2016The miscreants who attacked a Hindu temple in Karachi to prove their religious bona fides have been charged under Section 295-A of the Pakistan Penal Code. It is about time. Now let us also consider the state of that forced minority the faithful love to hate, i.e. the Ahmedis. Who is going to bell the […]
The Muslim response? on April 17, 2016In 1861, the Scottish Orientalist (with an evangelical bent), Sir William Muir wrote his infamous Life of Mahomet spanning four volumes, which was a terrible and an intemperate attack — through biased and selective extrapolation from the Hadith — on the life and motivations of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). He was assisted and egged […]
Inflammatory anti-Muslim film and the US Constitution on April 16, 2016The film Innocence of Muslims has to rank as the most terribly imbecilic and ridiculous attempt to malign the Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) to date. It is a deeply offensive film, which has caused genuine anguish to not just religious Muslims all over the world but all reasonable people who have read a thing or […]
The logical result of the blasphemy law on April 15, 2016The events of the last week may have surprised you. Seeing mullahs falling over one another to declare that Rimsha Masih, the 14-year-old Pakistani Christian girl, was innocent of the charge of blasphemy was quite a spectacle in a country no stranger to spectacles. It is not out of a sudden love for justice or […]
Is A Q Khan really the father of Pakistans nuclear programme? on April 14, 2016Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan is our self-styled ‘Baba-e-Bum’ and ‘Mohsin-e-Pak’. His extraordinary claim as a nuclear scientist is accepted carte blanche by the youth from the middle classes. Someone has to tell the truth some time. Dr Khan is neither a nuclear scientist nor the father of our nuclear programme. He is however by his […]
Between extremisms on April 10, 2016Tanvir Qadri, a Barelvi cab driver from Bradford, killed Asad Shah, an Ahmadi shopkeeper, in Scotland because of his faith. The extremist mindset that led to legal and social persecution of Ahmadis in Pakistan starting in the 1970s has now reared its ugly head in the Britain as well. An Urdu newspaper in Islamabad went […]
Non-Muslims as heads of state on March 28, 2016Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, speaking at the Holi celebrations in Umerkot, has asked very poignantly why Pakistani non-Muslims are barred from becoming the president or the prime minister of the country. This is a question I have raised in this space on several occasions. We owe it to ourselves to tell the truth again and again till […]