Columns

The mood was sober. I had just joined a government department, as part of a year away from private sector work, and had been warned about the efficiencies of the new office. I say warned because most people expect a rather cushiony and delightfully inefficient existence in government departments but the one I had joined had a reputation of not taking things lightly. And thus far that morning, it seemed true.
It was my first day on the job and a Departmental Meeting had been

Populations are classified using different measures, like sex, rural-urban, income, education, age, profession, religious persuasion. The most misleading classification is 'elite'. 'Elite' means cr

Fascism is not just a convenient political label. It was a monstrous ideology that brought misery to untold millions. Sadly, there is scarcely a better term to describe some of the xenophobic parties that have crawled out of the woodwork into the mainstream of European politics.
The Far Right is on the march again in Europe and can no longer be dismissed as a fringe outcropping. Across Europe, extremist movements have become the new norm as centrist political parties have been

As the shock of the Punjab Governor's assassination gives way to awe for the dark side of Islam in Pakistan, society finally sees what it is up against. It is always difficult to find words that honour our martyrs but one would imagine that the free-thinking people of Pakistan would have acquired a thick skin after having witnessed so much bloodshed in the name of God and Country. Just when you could have said we have seen it all, the assassination of the Governor of the Punjab shows

The idea of a no-war pact between India and Pakistan was first floated by former President of Pakistan Ayub Khan. However, the idea was rejected by India and later by Pakistan when the former made the proposal. Now, both countries are vehemently opposed to it.
Consequently, they have fought 3 full fledged wars, twice as conventional weapon states and once as nuclear weapon states and are constantly fighting on the frozen heights of Siachen, where general winter, to quote Mani

Events have moved so fast since the advent of the New Year that it is difficult to keep pace with them. Salmaan Taseer's tragic assassination coincided with Nawaz Sharif's ultimatum in the wake of the virtual falling apart of the ruling coalition. MQM is back in the folds again and now we are told by no less than Nawaz Sharif himself, that his ultimatum was not an ultimatum at all.
Governor Latif Khosa's oath-taking ceremony was almost surreal in the sense that the PML(N) that

Being a law minister and spokesman for the big man is a major honour but someone still pines for that glamorous colonial mansion on Lahore's Mall Road. We hear that the Doctor had been trying his best to get there before and after the late Taseer's appointment as Governor. After Taseer's tragic murder, the opportunity presented itself once again. Sadly, this time too, he was beaten to it by another legal eagle with just as lively a record as our good doctor. Word has it that on

The appointment of Sardar Latif Khosa as the Governor of Punjab is the first serious blow to the purported rapprochement between the two principal political parties of the country based on the proposed charter of demands presented by the PML(N) Quaid. One of the demands concerned the removal of the tainted ministers and officials who are part of the incumbent administration and to undertake further concrete initiatives to eliminate corruption from the country.
Latif Khosa's

The state is in imminent danger of implosion. The killing of Governor Taseer is meant to send a clear message to the political leadership: Any politician not acceptable to the extremists could meet a similar fate. The incident, followed by rallies in support of the killer, indicates that extremist thinking is touching an all time high. It doesn't matter whether the extremists are in a minority or that they cannot win the elections. What is significant is that they are already

Jose Saramago's novel Blindness is the story of an unnamed city afflicted by a mass epidemic of blindness. As the affliction spreads, social order begins to break down. The government's inept and panic-driven repressive measures, trying to quarantine those already gone blind and resorting to excessive force against others, only serve to worsen the fast deteriorating situation. The result is deep moral degradation. Then one day, as suddenly and inexplicably as it had come, the

Much has changed since the time of the classical jurists who studiously worked away writing tracts of theology, books of fiqh and treatises of spirituality. That was a time where the classical jurist had ample individual freedom to construct and pass verdicts independently of any central political authority and where the culture of learning embedded in Muslim society was more individualistic in contrast to today's bureaucratic systems of education.
Muslim scholars in the past

The majority of articles and editorial comments published since the tragic assassination of Salmaan Taseer bear reference to the "deafening silence" of Pakistan's political, social and liberal elite. Fear generated by the senseless act and an alleged inability of the law enforcement agencies has certainly created confusion, but it is of absolute essence that these forces must be galvanised into resistance if Pakistan is to defy extremist mobs intent on conquering an essentially

Whether somebody wizened him up to it, or whether it came from deep within, is irrelevant. Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari's speech at Salmaan Taseer's memorial at the Pakistan High Commission in London is significant for its impact and import - and its timing.
In the superbly crafted statement, delivered with passion and equipoise that belied his years, Bilawal gets straight to the heart of the matter: the assassination of Taseer is not about "the liberals versus the conservative or

I don't know where to begin. How can one talk of justice in an environment where a large number of people have become the dispensers of rulings over and above the court and its due process? As far as I know (and I know very little), the concept of the institution of the judiciary is present within the Islamic system; a system where the Qazi comes to a decision after listening to every party's viewpoint. If the wrongdoing is of a criminal nature, then government officials present the

Salmaan Taseer is dead. Another mindless, inhumane assassination whose blood will further stain the already tarnished image of a country that has long been struggling vis-a-vis internal and external forces.
Brash businessman, pithy politician, flamboyant father are but mere labels to a personality whose life was larger than life itself. Taseer bravely opened his life for all to see via 'Sunday' - his newspaper's popular art/fashion magazine - published every weekend. He

When the petrol prices went up just before the start of 2011, it was a sharp rise and a general hue and cry was raised; the federal government said they had nothing to do with price changes in petrol. The Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) was mandated to look at oil prices every 15 days and adjust them according to demand/supply conditions and international prices of crude oil. But lo and behold, as the pressure rose from other parties and the seat of the Prime Minister started

It is impossible nowadays to catch a glimpse of the news - whether written or broadcast - and not be assaulted by the latest in world violence. An assassination here, a robbery there, a war everywhere - news of death and destruction is what constitutes news at all in the world today. And what with Twitter and Facebook and all the gadgets in hand that have made reporters of all and sundry, the bad news travels fast and it travels wide.
Is the world becoming more violent or is more