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Nadeem F. ParachaNaya Daur |
There’s a consistent pattern with vlogs and podcasts on YouTube. The more they succeed in finding larger audiences, the more they become about the...
The Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP), Justice Qazi Faez Isa, often goes out of his way to not provide interpretations of constitutional texts....
In May 2023, a recorded phone call — allegedly between the mother-in-law of the former Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Atta Bandial, and the...
The past is mostly an invention that the present uses to secure an illusion that keeps lies in power. To the British novelist George Orwell, “Those...
In 1989, the essay ‘The End of History’ by the American political scientist Francis Fukuyama created quite a stir. He wrote that liberal democracy...
Currently, one of the most frequently used words in political discourses is the term ‘polarisation’. Recent studies demonstrate that a majority of...
Like politicians, political commentators, too, frequently use the word ‘awaam’ [the masses]. I once asked a political analyst what he meant by the...
The German writer J Wolfgang Goethe once quipped, “Blessed is the nation that doesn’t need heroes.” As if to expand upon Goethe’s words, the...
Till the 1960s, the idea of engineering an ideal society was an earnest endeavour. It did not draw the kind of cynical ridicule or even dread that it...
In 1975, a conference on the history of Sindh was organised in Karachi. It was treated as an important event by the then prime minister of Pakistan,...
A lot has been theorised and analysed in the last decade about the rise of populism across the world. Political scientists and sociologists have put...
Recently, when hundreds of workers belonging to the Deobandi Sunni Islamist party, the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam–Fazal (JUI-F) — protesting against the...
In 1987, the American sociologists Rodney Stark and William S. Bainbridge formulated a ‘Religious Market Theory.’ The theory is a critique of the...
Back in the late 1980s, a bunch of guys and I started to publish a ‘revolutionary’ newsletter. We were all in our early twenties and some of us...
The so-called ‘emotional vote’ is something that, for almost a decade now, has been increasingly attracting the attention of political scientists....
Pakistan has been stuck in a ‘vicious cycle’ in which the military establishment (ME) constantly intervenes to aid the election of a prime...
In Pakistan, the moment someone mentions the word ‘rigging’, the first thing that comes to mind is the image of suspicious looking people stuffing...
In Pakistan, the moment someone mentions the word ‘rigging’, the first thing that comes to mind is the image of suspicious looking people stuffing...
On January 13, a three-member bench of the Supreme Court, headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa, delivered a verdict in favour of...
There are multiple theories on voting behaviour. The three most common are the rational choice theory, issue voting and the valence issue concept....
If a rickshaw driver had an accident and was in trouble, some of the first people to reach out to help him would likely be other rickshaw drivers....
On October 9, 2009, the day my father passed away, I received a call from an old college friend of his. The friend was Meraj Muhammad Khan. Meraj, who...
The former prime minister of Pakistan Imran Khan often referred to his opponents as ‘Mir Jafar’ and ‘Mir Sadiq.’ In Pakistan, these two names...
Romantics thrive on disappointments. Disappointments inspire them to weave laments through which they can exhibit their idealistic/romantic...
Pakistan and Israel have had a curious relationship. Officially, there is none. In Pakistan, not much has been written on this ‘relationship’,...
A quiet revolt began to take shape in certain academic circles in India, Pakistan and Israel in the 1980s. The revolt was a severe critique of...
In Pakistan, the word ‘democracy’ is used in a most idealistic manner — just as it was in the West, till it began to be seriously scrutinised...
In the November 17 issue of Dawn, M. Shabbar Ali quoted an interesting observation in his article on Babar Azam’s ‘resignation’ as captain of...
Pakistan and Israel are often understood by various political scientists and historians as nationalist twins. Membership to both is based on nothing...
Pakistan and Israel are often understood by various political scientists and historians as nationalist twins. Membership to both is based on nothing...
In 1956, the Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalised the Suez Canal. This compromised the economic and strategic interests of Britain,...
Decades ago, one of my paternal uncles, who is a US citizen, told me that whenever news of Israeli attacks against Palestinians begins to dominate the...
It is incorrect to frame the so-called ‘Israel-Palestine war’ as a “religious conflict.” Indeed, the region was once part of the Ottoman...
One of the common themes running across the short-lived but engaging TV series The Newsroom was a tense tussle between ‘old school journalism’...
In 2011, large protests erupted across various regions in the Arab world. The protesters demanded an end to ‘corrupt’ dictatorships, the...
On September 25 this year, the former US president Donald Trump suggested that the outgoing Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen Mark Milley,...
In December 2009, two suicide bombers exploded themselves in a congested market in Lahore known as Moon Market. The place was packed with men, women...
Many European and American historians often speak and write about certain periods of ‘religious revival’ in Muslim countries. They claim that...
It is encouraging to see and hear various political parties, democracy activists, judges, journalists and lawyers speak about the need to...
On YouTube, there are numerous videos on ‘failed states’. Those posted by certain American news outlets almost always describe Russia as a failed...