Subscribe:
RSS feed
Browsing All Posts filed under »Politics«
A Chance to Promote Peace on Our Roads
Pakistani electronic and print media has played no positive role in countering the hate, xenophobia and bigotry that has permeated into our society. The public space in Pakistan, specially Punjab, has been taken over by the right-wing organizations. It has been filled with callas for jihad, social and monetary boycott of religious minorities, incitement to […]
Islamic fundamentalism, post-modernism and science
by Awais Masood Published Daily Times – November 23, 2011 The recent killing of Yemeni-American Imam, Anwar al-Awlaki, in a drone attack has brought to front the significance of Islamist propaganda in cyberspace and its effects on terror recruitment. Hundreds of sermons by Awlaki were available on the internet. He operated a Facebook page, ran […]
Haspataal puhancha day yar, mujhay haspataal tau puhancha day’
Sarfaraz Shah, a youth died in hope for mercy. by Sonia Wahab These are the last words of Sarfaraz Shah, murdered in cold blood by six paramilitary rangers in Karachi. There is very little known to us that how this video was shot so closely and how it got a chance to spread so quickly […]
No Country for Sane Men
by Lone Liberal Kohsar market seems to be flickering back to life, but an unmistakable aura of dread and apprehension persists. This was the site of the tragic assassination that took place on the 4th of January. I visited the market yesterday, and it is no longer the place I recall. According to an employee at […]
What is Enlightenment?
By Humayun Nosheerwan They say that there is no such thing as ideal in this world, and to look for one is an unavailing pursuit. But contrary to this popular notion, ideals do exist and they sustain their existence in the minds of the “idealists”. For some it must be quite surprising to know that […]
The Enemy Within
by Humayun Nosheerwan Who is responsible for this dismal and depressingly dark fate of Pakistani nation? And who is to blame for the fear of impending disaster and catastrophic future which now occupies the hearts and minds of people living in this part of the South Asia and in entire Muslim world? WHO is the […]
A Murder by a Theocratic State
by Danish Khan The state of Pakistan has been in the news again, and unfortunately it is for all the wrong reasons again. This time it is not about any suicide bombing, in fact it is even far more worst than a suicidal bomb blast. In a suicide bombing a single individual kills innocent […]
Contrary evidence on Secularism
By Pervez Hoodbhoy First published in The News on Sunday. November 7, 2010. Though some Muslim scholars see no contradiction between secularism and Islam, a secular state is possible only if there are enough thoughtful people who can make it happen Decades from now Pakistan will cease to discriminate between citizens of different religious faiths; […]
Extension of Hypocrisy
by Awais Masood It was such a tragedy to see a news item mentioning that the Vice Chancellor (VC) of University of Engineering and Technology (UET) Lahore who has been ‘ruling’ the institute for last twelve years has been granted another (fourth) term.[1] There is almost everything wrong with Mr. Akram and the extension of […]
Hailing the ‘Muslim Citizen’: State Nationalism and the Social Construction of the “Heretic” in Pakistan
Sadia Saeed Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, New York, New York City, Aug 11, 2007 ABSTRACT In this paper, I revisit the debate on the relationship between nationalism and state-formation through a focus on the Pakistani state’s historically varying relationship with its Islamic politico-religious identity. Specifically, I look at […]
A fallacious binary
By Saqlain Imam Published first in The News on Sunday, October 3, 2010 The word secularism seems to be the most contentious one in the Pakistani political culture. Anything that is anti-religion or non-religious is dubbed secular; it is understood as a Western concept with no direct connection with Islam; for example, some people might […]
Secular Knowledge Versus Islamic Knowledge and Uncritical Intellectuality : The Work of Ziauddin Sardar
Saeed Ur-Rehman Published in Cultural Dynamics 2002 14: 65 DOI: 10.1177/09213740020140010501 ABSTRACT This article examines the politics of Islamic postcolonial Occidentalism as a response to the secularizing influence of western modernity. By taking the work of Ziauddin Sardar, a Pakistani-British intellectual, as an example of Occidentalist Islamic thought, I have attempted to problematize the binaristic […]
An “intelligence report” on MQM : Agenda behind plagiarized report
I’ll make this clear at the very start. This post is not what Secular Pakistan normally posts and neither does the blog aim to focus on this area specifically. However, the report got my attention and I thought it necessitated a quick post. Daily Times today published a report stating that ANP Secretary, Senator Zahid […]
Land Reforms – History, Legal challenges and how Shariat Courts abolished them
by Shahid Saeed Khan The politics of land reform have always been tenuous in this country, the populist rhetoric very much opposed to the reality. It has the support of a large segment of the public who view abolition of large land holdings as a big step towards social progress. Land Reform has always been […]
“Jinnah became irrelevant after Objectives Resolution” : Interview with Mubarak Ali
By Mazhar Khan Jadoon First published in The News on Sunday, August 29, 2010 The News on Sunday: How do you view secularism as having evolved in the particular case of India where the kings did not run their empires on the clergy’s instructions but according to political exigencies? Mubarak Ali: Secularism has been in […]
Interview with Ziauddin Sardar
Ziauddin Sardar is a writer, broadcaster, public intellectual and cultural-critic who specialises in Islamic Studies First published in The News on Sunday, August 29, 2010 The News on Sunday: The Chief Justice has questioned the power of the parliament if it takes the ‘drastic’ decision of declaring Pakistan a secular state. You have talked about […]
In the light of history : How an Islamic State was carved out of a secular movement for Pakistan
By Farah Zia First published in The News on Sunday, August 29, 2010 As we discuss the case for Pakistan as a secular state, it would be instructive to revisit the events of Pakistan movement to see how terms like “secularism” and “Islamic state” were played out in the years preceding partition. The conduct of […]
Case for a Secular Pakistan and The price paid by Pakistan for rejecting secularism
By I. A. Rehman First published in The News on Sunday, August 29, 2010 Perhaps the greatest injustice done to the Quaid-e-Azam in the state founded under his leadership is that his August 11, 1947 address to the Constituent Assembly is treated as a charter of non-Muslim citizens’ rights only, whereas in reality it lays […]
Why is CJP Afraid of Secularism?
The Chief Justice of Pakistan Mr. Justice Ifthakar Chaudhary, who was reinstated to his top position after rigorous anti-dictatorship efforts of champions of democracy and pluralism, has stunned everyone with his recent remarks against the Parliament and secularism. The Chief Justice, who surely is able enough to grasp the real meaning of legal and constitutional […]
Saving a Drowing Country Needs an Ideological Shift
by Nasima Zehra Awan Source: Pak Tea House “You are free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques……..Religion is not the business of the State”. Thus spoke Jinnah, whilst addressing the Constituent Assembly on August 11, 1947. Sixty three yearslater, this is what our “honorable” Chief Justice has to say: “Parliament […]
Share
Recent Comments
روشنی
- An error has occurred; the feed is probably down. Try again later.
Secular Pakistan 
August 30, 2014 by Awais
1