Why Pakistan must be a secular state on June 9, 2019The US Supreme Court once ruled that the mixing of religion and government destroyed the government and degraded religion. Our experience in Pakistan confirms the wisdom of that ruling. The Faizabad Dharna and the protests around Aasia Bibi acquittal show just how destructive our propensity to mix religion with government has been. In the process […]
All is not well in Pakistan on June 3, 2019The reference against Justice Qazi Faez Isa is just the latest example of how the Imran Khan led PTI government has completely lost its marbles and in the process is hell-bent on destroying whatever is left of the country’s institutions for the sake of the Fuhrer’s own ego. For those who do not know Justice […]
Modi’s election and our hypocrisy on May 26, 2019I hate to break it to my Indian friends but Narendra Modi’s election is sadly not an aberration in Indian history. It is the logical extension of the politics of Indian Exceptionalism and so called ancient dignity of India that Gandhi and Nehru put into motion 100 years ago. Jinnah who had been at the […]
Originalism and abortion on May 20, 2019Last week I had an interesting discussion with an old American friend of Pakistani origin on problems facing Pakistan. When I pointed out some of the problems faced by the US especially after a series of reactionary laws on the abortion issue, she waxed eloquent about the inherently superior founding principles of the US Constitution. […]
Equality of citizenship on May 6, 201990 years ago when Jinnah stood up to speak on the Child Marriages Restraint Bill in the Indian central legislature, no one amongst the Hindus said to him “You are a Muslim and you should not speak on this matter.” The bill was introduced to stop the practice of child marriages in India, which at […]
Understanding Imran Khan on April 29, 2019Imran Khan’s misogynist comments against Bilawal Bhutto were not surprising in the least. Indeed one was surprised at those who were surprised in the first place. They assume that just because Imran Khan played cricket in England and attended Oxford University, he would somehow be attuned to modern sensibilities. Do not be mistaken by the […]
Nar ka bacha on March 11, 2019Last week Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan took another principled decision. I am referring to the decision to fire Fayyaz-ul-Hassan Chohan for making rabidly anti-Hindu statements. In taking this principled decision, Imran Khan was truly following in the footsteps of Mr Jinnah, who had refused to autograph the Time Magazine cover with his picture because […]
Khan’s victory over Modi on March 4, 2019What an extraordinary week we have had. Whatever our criticisms of Imran Khan and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government — of which there are plenty — let us give credit where it is due. Imran Khan proved to be the right person at the right time, a strong willed leader standing up to aggression by […]
English should be the medium of education on February 25, 2019The Punjab Government has recently decided to re-introduce Urdu as the medium of instruction for primary school students in the province. There are two sources for this ill-advised move. The first one is of course, a misplaced sense of nationalism that seeks to put Urdu above all else. The second one is our self styled […]
Professor Venkat Dhulipala’s dishonesty and our Islamists on February 11, 2019The Pakistani journal called “Islamic Studies”, run by the Islamic Research Institute, a mouth piece for reactionary and bigoted Islamist propaganda has decided to publish a 55-page unhinged and completely off the rocker attack on Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founding father of Pakistan. This is the work of Venkat Dhulipala, a rightwing Hindutvist Indian […]