Pakistan on 2.2.2222 on April 6, 2020Despite our many failures and reverses, humanity marches in one direction: towards greater personal freedom and human rights. We do not know what the future will look like precisely, especially in these times, which seem like the end of the world, but we can try and imagine. So what will Pakistan’s society and government look […]
State regulation of religion on March 30, 2020At the time Covid-19 was declared a pandemic, I happened to be in London. One of the first steps that the state took there was to shut down Churches. This was possible through guidance by the Church of England that called for the immediate closing down of all churches. The monarch in UK in addition […]
Covid 19 Legislation and the new world on March 23, 2020It seems that the Federal Government, unlike the Sindh Government, has beencaught napping in the midst of a clear trajectory in terms of Covid 19 numbers. Though we are mercifully been spared so far from deaths, at the end of this all we are looking at least a few million infected and many dead, if […]
Role of Islam in 1956 and 1973 Constitutions on March 16, 2020Present Queen Elizabeth was the last monarch of Pakistan. Her reign as the Queen of Pakistan started on 2 June 1953 and ended on 23 March 1956. Pakistan shed its dominion status on that date and became a republic by promulgating the first republican constitution. Under this constitution Pakistan was declared an Islamic Republic, as […]
Interpreting Islamic provisions of the constitution on March 9, 2020Chief Justice Athar Minallah’s8 page judgment on Aurat March is a significant decision when it comes to the interpretation of Islamic provisions of the Pakistani Constitution, not just when it comes to women but in general with respect to the expansive interpretation of Islamic injunctions to allow for maximum human rights. This is keeping in […]
Ambedkar’s subcontinent on March 2, 2020As India bursts with new communal fury, I took the time to take a short walk from Lincoln’s Inn to visit Dr B R Ambedkar’s bust at London School of Economics and Political Science over by Holborn in London. That great constitutional jurist of the subcontinent who is hailed as the father of Indian constitution […]
The word “freely” in Objectives Resolution on February 24, 2020The Objectives Resolution passed on 12 March 1949 was seen as a compromise between the secularists, modernist Muslims and the Islamists in the newly founded Pakistan. The document had also faced vociferous criticism from the minorities who feared that it was committing Pakistan to an exclusivist theocratic polity. To others it was an abject surrender […]
Social media regulation on February 17, 2020Tania Aidrus – a former Google executive- was brought to Pakistan and launched with great fanfare as a new leader to take Pakistan into the digital age. Digital Pakistan is the new buzzword and it was hoped that with the induction of a high powered Google executive, Pakistan would formulate policies that would help it […]
Jinnah’s oath on February 2, 2020As a biographer of Mr. Jinnah, I inevitably lean on references from his life and at times I admit it can become tedious for the reader. Nevertheless I have no intention of stopping it, especially when one finds our modern reality in Pakistan so absurdly contradictory to the ideas of the founding father of this […]
1954 Draft Constitution on January 27, 2020One of the things I realised very early on during my college days in the USA was the emphasis US places on the vision of the founding fathers of that country. At the historic New Brunswick campus of my alma mater in New Jersey, one would find plaques and stones with inscriptions of great historical […]