Million-marches and capital-lockdowns
A brief history Maulana Fazlur Rehman is firm in his resolve to lockdown the federal capital. He had warned Imran Khan to resign by August 31 or face the consequences. Khan hasn’t…
How not to approach the Kashmir issue
An unpopular opinion The heart goes out to the residents of Indian Occupied Kashmir, for their dark night may just have gotten a whole lot longer. The problem, which has defied settlement…
On gender equality
A politically incorrect column Are women equal to men? This is an old question, and there have been all sorts of responses to it. There are men who have laughed at the…
Independence Day celebrations
About time eight things were realised The 72nd anniversary of Pakistan’s Independence Day was celebrated with customary fervour and excitement. Customary fervour is a great thing of course, but it has been…
The mystery of the 14 votes
The best-laid plans of mice and men… Invisible forces? Horse-trading? Conscience call? Mistrust of leadership? Aik Zardari sab pe bhaari? Everybody has his own theory regarding what went wrong (or right, depending…
Major players of the 2020s
Their strengths and weaknesses The PPP and the PML-N will likely be led in the 2020s by new leadership. The transition will be comparatively easy for the two parties because in Pakistan…
Lowering’ the gaze
A misconception England’s Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid take their religion seriously. So it is that moments before the champagne corks popped, the duo could be seen slipping away from their team’s…
Shopkeepers will be shopkeepers
Imran Khan’s toughest test yet Shopkeepers are the same everywhere. And it doesn’t matter what lofty name– trader, businessman, dealer, distributor, mill-owner, supplier– a shopkeeper is dignified with; he is still a…
Slogans masquerading as philosophy
‘Deep’ thoughts that undo themselves These are gems that are presented to demonstrate unparalleled sagacity on the part of the utterer. They are often employed as weapons to hit the supposedly less…
What are captains made of?
And why Sarfaraz doesn’t cut it By all accounts, Sarfaraz Ahmed is a good human being. A nice, humble, down-to-earth guy, whom any decent man would wish well. That said, I am…
Is Muslims’ concept of God the god-of-the-gaps?
Addressing an oft-repeated criticism There’s a view of God and religion that has traditionally been very popular among anthropologists. It goes something like this: primitive man didn’t know how the universe worked,…
Atheists’ obsession with God
Some observations on the God debate For a group that believes He doesn’t even exist, atheists are awfully obsessed with God. Being a member of many religion and philosophy pages on the…
Game of Thrones
What went wrong By most accounts, Game of Thrones has ended on a very disappointing note. All great lives have quiet spells; all great books have uneventful passages. Indeed, in literature and…
A column about nothing
On Lawrence Krauss’s Universe from Nothing After ‘Why is there something rather than nothing?’ arguably the most fundamental question that has ever been contemplated by humans is: ‘How can something come out…
Communicating Islam
Why one must solely employ Quranic arguments All of us, at one time or another, have been asked to account for our religion. The occasion may be a question from a curious…
Miracles and science
Is religion unscientific? One reservation about the Quran on the part of science enthusiasts– and this includes more and more young, sincere Muslims now– is the occurrence of ‘unscientific’ miracles in the…
Ramzan reminiscences
A dollop of nostalgia and a dash of hope As a rule, nostalgia is a counter-productive emotion. That’s because it has its roots in a selective recalling of good and bad memories…