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Nadeem F. Paracha

Nadeem F. Paracha

Naya Daur

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SMOKERS’ CORNER: THE AGE OF PSYCHOPOLITICS

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...

sunday 80

Dawn (Magazines)

Nadeem F. Paracha

SMOKERS’ CORNER: PAKISTAN'S POPULIST JUDGES

The Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP), Justice Qazi Faez Isa, often goes out of his way to not provide interpretations of constitutional texts....

19.05.2024 100

Dawn (Magazines)

Nadeem F. Paracha

SMOKERS’ CORNER: KHAN AND THE GENERALS

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...

12.05.2024 100

Dawn (Magazines)

Nadeem F. Paracha

SMOKERS’ CORNER: HISTORY IN THE 'POST-TRUTH ERA'

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...

05.05.2024 100

Dawn (Magazines)

Nadeem F. Paracha

SMOKERS’ CORNER: REALITY VERSUS PERCEPTION

In 1989, the essay ‘The End of History’ by the American political scientist Francis Fukuyama created quite a stir. He wrote that liberal democracy...

28.04.2024 70

Dawn (Magazines)

Nadeem F. Paracha

SMOKERS’ CORNER: PERNICIOUS POLARISATION

Currently, one of the most frequently used words in political discourses is the term ‘polarisation’. Recent studies demonstrate that a majority of...

21.04.2024 80

Dawn (Magazines)

Nadeem F. Paracha

SMOKERS’ CORNER: WHO ARE 'THE AWAAM?

Like politicians, political commentators, too, frequently use the word ‘awaam’ [the masses]. I once asked a political analyst what he meant by the...

14.04.2024 40

Dawn (Magazines)

Nadeem F. Paracha

SMOKERS’ CORNER: HEROES IN AN UNHEROIC AGE

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...

07.04.2024 20

Dawn (Magazines)

Nadeem F. Paracha

SMOKERS’ CORNER: IN SEARCH OF THE 'NEW MAN'

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...

31.03.2024 30

Dawn (Magazines)

Nadeem F. Paracha

SMOKERS’ CORNER: FOSTERING 'PUNJABIYAT'

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,...

24.03.2024 20

Dawn (Magazines)

Nadeem F. Paracha

SMOKERS’ CORNER: THE PITFALLS OF 'POLITAINMENT'

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...

17.03.2024 40

Dawn (Magazines)

Nadeem F. Paracha

SMOKERS’ CORNER: MAULANA FAZl'S MEN IN SINDH

Recently, when hundreds of workers belonging to the Deobandi Sunni Islamist party, the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam–Fazal (JUI-F) — protesting against the...

10.03.2024 70

Dawn (Magazines)

Nadeem F. Paracha

SMOKERS’ CORNER: THE MARKETPLACE OF FAITHS

In 1987, the American sociologists Rodney Stark and William S. Bainbridge formulated a ‘Religious Market Theory.’ The theory is a critique of the...

03.03.2024 30

Dawn (Magazines)

Nadeem F. Paracha

SMOKERS’ CORNER: PERFORMATIVE PROVOCATEURS

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...

25.02.2024 40

Dawn (Magazines)

Nadeem F. Paracha

SMOKERS’ CORNER: RIDING THE EMOTIONAL VOTE

The so-called ‘emotional vote’ is something that, for almost a decade now, has been increasingly attracting the attention of political scientists....

18.02.2024 40

Dawn (Magazines)

Nadeem F. Paracha

SMOKERS’ CORNER: ESCAPING THE HYBRID CYCLE

Pakistan has been stuck in a ‘vicious cycle’ in which the military establishment (ME) constantly intervenes to aid the election of a prime...

11.02.2024 40

Dawn (Magazines)

Nadeem F. Paracha

SMOKERS’ CORNER: THE VIGOURS OF RIGGING

In Pakistan, the moment someone mentions the word ‘rigging’, the first thing that comes to mind is the image of suspicious looking people stuffing...

04.02.2024 20

Dawn (Magazines)

Nadeem F. Paracha

SMOKERS’ CORNER: THE FIGOURS OF RIGGING

In Pakistan, the moment someone mentions the word ‘rigging’, the first thing that comes to mind is the image of suspicious looking people stuffing...

04.02.2024 30

Dawn (Magazines)

Nadeem F. Paracha

SMOKERS’ CORNER: THE RETURN OF THE ROMANTICS

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...

28.01.2024 40

Dawn (Magazines)

Nadeem F. Paracha

SMOKERS’ CORNER: THE WAY WE VOTE

There are multiple theories on voting behaviour. The three most common are the rational choice theory, issue voting and the valence issue concept....

21.01.2024 20

Dawn (Magazines)

Nadeem F. Paracha

SMOKERS’ CORNER: MIDDLE ClASS SENSIBILITIES

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....

14.01.2024 20

Dawn (Magazines)

Nadeem F. Paracha

SMOKERS’ CORNER: THE BANDWAGON LEFT

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...

07.01.2024 40

Dawn (Magazines)

Nadeem F. Paracha

SMOKERS’ CORNER: HEROES, VILLAINS AND FOOLS

The former prime minister of Pakistan Imran Khan often referred to his opponents as ‘Mir Jafar’ and ‘Mir Sadiq.’ In Pakistan, these two names...

31.12.2023 50

Dawn (Magazines)

Nadeem F. Paracha

SMOKERS’ CORNER: THE LAMENT OF THE POLITICAL ROMANTICS

Romantics thrive on disappointments. Disappointments inspire them to weave laments through which they can exhibit their idealistic/romantic...

24.12.2023 90

Dawn (Magazines)

Nadeem F. Paracha

SMOKERS’ CORNER: THE CURIOUS CASE OK PAKISTAN AND ISRAEL

Pakistan and Israel have had a curious relationship. Offi­cially, there is none. In Pakistan, not much has been written on this ‘relationship’,...

17.12.2023 40

Dawn (Magazines)

Nadeem F. Paracha

SMOKERS’ CORNER: FOUNDATIONAL MYTHS

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...

10.12.2023 20

Dawn (Magazines)

Nadeem F. Paracha

SMOKERS’ CORNER: THE DARK SIDE OF DEMOCRACY

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...

03.12.2023 40

Dawn (Magazines)

Nadeem F. Paracha

SMOKERS’ CORNER: BUILDING SPORTING DEMIGODS

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...

26.11.2023 40

Dawn (Magazines)

Nadeem F. Paracha

SMOKERS’ CORNER: ZIONISM AND MUSLIM NATIONALISM

Pakistan and Israel are often understood by various political scientists and historians as nationalist twins. Membership to both is based on nothing...

19.11.2023 20

Dawn (Magazines)

Nadeem F. Paracha

SMOKERS’ CORNER: ZIOISM AND MUSLIM NATIONALISM

Pakistan and Israel are often understood by various political scientists and historians as nationalist twins. Membership to both is based on nothing...

19.11.2023 100

Dawn (Magazines)

Nadeem F. Paracha

SMOKERS’ CORNER: THE ‘NEW ANTI-SEMITISM’

In 1956, the Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalised the Suez Canal. This compromised the economic and strategic interests of Britain,...

12.11.2023 70

Dawn (Magazines)

Nadeem F. Paracha

SMOKERS’ CORNER: CONFUSED IN AMERICA

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...

05.11.2023 70

Dawn (Magazines)

Nadeem F. Paracha

SMOKERS’ CORNER: MANUFACTURING A 'HOLY WAR'

It is incorrect to frame the so-called ‘Israel-Palestine war’ as a “religious conflict.” Indeed, the region was once part of the Ottoman...

29.10.2023 30

Dawn (Magazines)

Nadeem F. Paracha

SMOKERS’ CORNER: THE DEATH OF JOURNALISM

One of the common themes running across the short-lived but engaging TV series The Newsroom was a tense tussle between ‘old school journalism’...

22.10.2023 40

Dawn (Magazines)

Nadeem F. Paracha

SMOKERS’ CORNER: THE PALESTINIAN SPRING?

In 2011, large protests erupted across various regions in the Arab world. The protesters demanded an end to ‘corrupt’ dictatorships, the...

15.10.2023 20

Dawn (Magazines)

Nadeem F. Paracha

SMOKERS’ CORNER: POLARISING POPULISTS AND THEIR UNDOING

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,...

08.10.2023 40

Dawn (Magazines)

Nadeem F. Paracha

SMOKERS’ CORNER: POLITICISING TRAGEDY

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...

01.10.2023 60

Dawn (Magazines)

Nadeem F. Paracha

SMOKERS’ CORNER: MUSLIM REVIVALISM AND AUTHENTICITY

Many European and American historians often speak and write about certain periods of ‘religious revival’ in Muslim countries. They claim that...

24.09.2023 40

Dawn (Magazines)

Nadeem F. Paracha

SMOKERS’ CORNER: RETHINKING THE CONSTITUTION

It is encouraging to see and hear various political parties, democracy activists, judges, journalists and lawyers speak about the need to...

17.09.2023 100

Dawn (Magazines)

Nadeem F. Paracha

SMOKERS’ CORNER: THE BRINK OF FAILURE

On YouTube, there are numerous videos on ‘failed states’. Those posted by certain American news outlets almost always describe Russia as a failed...

10.09.2023 40

Dawn (Magazines)

Nadeem F. Paracha

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