Vociferous and unequivocal

Freedom is something that we all covet. History is rife with examples showing  that the quest for freedom became a major casus belli. Perhaps, the preservation of freedom is the most vital interest of any state. I am hastily penning-down this piece on the eve of our independence day. 67 years have passed since Pakistan adorned the map of the world after a colossal yet controversial struggle. The focus of the piece is on the current impediments which mar us in fructifying our potentials. What can or should be done is something which worries one and all. However, I would not paint a morbid picture because despondency is in sin. Pakistan and her inhabitants are typified with resiliency. The country has borne everything, from continual political instabilities to foreign incursions . Much of this is a product of our own inanities. The despair and frustration of the populace is shunned aside on this festive day, wherein one and all show their veneration and love for their moth...

The vocabulary of politics has always been rife with buzz words. Vigilante, extremism and other such phenomenons have certainly left an indelible impact on high power politics and inter-state ties, thereby having its underpinnings   on world order. Every religion is inherently rigid in one way or the other; therefore, elements of fundamentalism and obstinacy creep-in somewhere along   the line.   Islamic Fundamentalism has been a bogey , to say the least. In fact many see extremism and Islam as hand in glove. This is something exacerbated and based on farcical analysis, but this write-up   doesn’t aim at challenging the very assumption. Many scholars have looked at the anatomy and nature of Islamic fundamentalism. The work that this piece looks at is one of Tariq Ali’s famous works “ The Clash of Fundamentalism: Crusades , Jihad and Modernity . Tariq Ali is a renowned scholar with visible leftist leanings. He has written extensively on world history and po...

Richard Nixon’s book “leaders” is a stunner; the book expounds upon the men that changed the world. Probably, all those leaders on whom   Nixon dwelt were men with immaculate traits. One hallmark which was common in almost all was their ability to speak with authority. Winston Churchill, Charles De Gaulle and Douglas MacArthur spoke with such panache that all were awe-inspired. Forget about the likes of Churchill or Yoshida for that matter; let us talk about the man at the helm in Pakistan, Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif. For the sake of simplicity, the piece will not even try to compare Sharif’s oratory prowess with that of the above-mentioned leaders, but will instead shed-light on his much-awaited speech to the nation, especially his “strategy” as regards power crisis and terrorism. The man in question took over   the coveted crown of premiership for the third time in June this year. This was possible because his party overpowered not only the PPP but...

The trajectory of Indo-Pak relations has been pretty simple: a collision course has been followed by both these neighbors over the past 66 years.   Let’s not go into the main conflict and the crises that emanated from that. The piece will shed light on a few sardonic antics shown by the Indian defense forces and government/opposition off-late. In the   process this piece will   deride some hollow arguments made by the ever-growing clique of liberals in Pakistan. Civilian supremacy is something that many of us covet; often Indian Army is given credit for being truly professional, for they haven’t as yet subverted the government. Yes indeed, it is something creditable however; we need not compare the milieus of both the countries. The difference was there for all to see. Had Nehru appointed General P N Thappar as defense minister, for instance sake , things might have been very different. One can disagree with many of the assertions made by General Ved Prakash Mali...

Introduction: American foreign policy is based upon the infamous Monroe Doctrine and in fact more importantly on the ideas of President Woodrow Wilson. Before, going into that let’s first establish the fact that the international system is anarchic, brutal and based upon national interest. Thus, the realist worldview takes primacy over liberalism, which calls for cooperation, diplomacy and disarmament. Woodrow Wilson always aspired America to put more weight in the international system , but the rationale was for humanitarian purposes  and the endorsement of democracy. However, it is imperative to fathom the fact that America has always looked after her geo-strategic interests under the garb of liberalism. For instance the Marshall Plan and Truman Doctrine were not enunciated due to any love lost for Greece, Turkey and other European countries, but because the Americans had to counter Communism. The reason why American foreign policy is being discussed here is that it has...

History is often thought of as a benign and laborious field of study, more so in our part of the world. This is primarily because we inter change history with rhetoric, long and glorified anecdotes brimming with statistical data. Hence it is only natural that this unease about history has been created. We, being a rare breed in academic circles of Pakistan have to have few readymade answers up our sleeves regarding why of all the subjects have we chosen a “useless” and “scope less” subject. Hence we found it imperative to answer this basic question in the inaugural History Department newsletter. We often have to make choices; some of them directly affect our future. Electing, history as a major field of study was never a hard decision for us, for something important occurred to us. Perhaps, we realized that history embraces something beyond dates and plain narratives. It is a documentation of human experiences. Descartes gave a very befitting example regarding our preconceived ...