Category: Columns

The story of Pakistan’s creation is often narrated as a straightforward struggle of a united Muslim community under a visionary leadership. Yet when we examine the historical landscape more critically, the movement appears far more complex, shaped less by internal political preparations and more by the shifting global realities that weakened the British Empire. A...

We live in a time where information travels faster than ever. With one click, we can see news, opinions, and videos from all over the world. But even with this progress, our moral values seem to be getting weaker. We make quick judgments, react without thinking, and speak without understanding. This is the real moral...

There are countless kinds of people in this world countless colors countless voices. But among them are some whom we look at, yet never really see People to whom we give a place under the open sky but inside the roofs of our hearts we never spare even a single corner for them. My society...

Despite the river’s volatility, our politics remain trapped in the comfort of familiar fights. Climate change is reshaping the Indus Basin far faster than Pakistan’s institutions can respond. The 2025 monsoon made this brutally clear. According to assessments by the United Nations, Government of Pakistan, and multiple international reporting agencies, the floods inundated roughly 5.4...

Europe, after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, entered a long era of fragmentation and confusion—what later historians called the Dark Ages. Political authority became weak and localized, tied to small lords, tribal chieftains, and feudal obligations. Armies were temporary bodies assembled for a season, unreliable and loosely organized, often fighting only when personal...

Youth, built on ambition but bound by exhaustion, stands at the edge of quiet collapse A generation built on hope now finds itself overworked, underheard and quietly fading behind screens and degrees. There is a stillness around Pakistan’s youth today, not of peace but of numbness shaped by constant striving and unseen deprivation. Beneath the...

Capitalism today stands at a crossroads, weighed down by contradictions that threaten both its legitimacy and survival. For decades, the system has promised prosperity, innovation, and freedom, yet what we see around us is inequality, ecological breakdown, and repeated financial crises. The global pandemic further revealed the fragility of markets and the centrality of the...

November 7th is my late father’s birthday. I have dedicated my upcoming book, “The Abandoned Pakistanis: 1971, Betrayal and Statelessness,” to him to his unwavering values, quiet strength, and love for truth. On this day that holds both memory and meaning, I take a small liberty: to imagine an interview — of me, with myself....

American system swings between two extremes, either internationalist or isolationists. Both have worked on their policies. Before the First World War, the isolationists were dominant in the system. America was inward-looking, concerned only with its own continent, protected by two oceans and confident that European conflicts were not its business. But when the country emerged...

When Zahran Mamdani, a young Muslim of South Asian descent, was elected as the Mayor of New York City, it was more than a political milestone, it was a celebration of universal human values. In a city where Muslims make up barely 3.6 percent of the population, Mamdani’s victory reflected a society that values character,...