Judicial activism and democracy
Recently in the backdrop of the ‘memogate’ controversy, the honourable apex court hearing a petition regarding the possible removal of the ISI chief and the army chief sought “assurances” from the...
View ArticleCinema and class
Film as a revolutionary art form has for some time been at direct odds with the commercialisation of cinema, because it has put those on the margins in popular discourse. The decline of Pakistan’s...
View ArticlePolitical moralization is not the way
A politician will stand on the pulpit and thousands of people will watch, as he or she weaves a story about the past. For some, it will be Ayub Khan’s decade of development, for others it may be an...
View ArticleBhagat Singh the intellectual
A lesser appreciated aspect about Bhagat Singh, who was executed on March 23, 1931, was his intellectual prowess. In the greater context of subcontinent politics and history, Singh’s socio-political...
View ArticleCorruption farce?
The present era is being called the age of corruption by many in Pakistan. Ranging from the National Reconciliation Ordinance to the growing allegations of corruption within state institutions, the...
View ArticleThe story of Baba Jan Hunzai
About a month ago, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani told the world that there are no political prisoners in Pakistan. But allow me to bring to notice the case of a political prisoner who is close to...
View ArticleNo stupid, banning Indian films will not help Pakistani films
Ayub Khan first banned Indian films in Pakistan in 1965. While it was a developing industry, the protectionist policy had a nationalist undertone rather than a solid economic rationale that would...
View ArticleMajor Ishaq and mass politics
During a time when Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had managed to capture the hearts and minds of the people in the late 1960s and early 1970s, Major Ishaq Muhammad was one progressive who chose to pave a...
View ArticleThe underlying consensus and elections
French philosopher Alain Badiou opens his essay, the Communist Hypothesis: “If we posit a definition of politics as ‘collective action, organised by certain principles, that aims to unfold the...
View ArticleAyub Khan and the Pakistani film industry
A leading film-maker once asserted to me that Pakistani cinema had actually thrived through the advent of Ayub Khan’s military rule. This thought is part of the broader belief amongst some quarters...
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