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Pakistan's Westernized founding fathers and their successors loved to have a drink and sat on the periodic demands of a ban on alcohol until the 1970s when the prohibition—at least on paper—was imposed
Pashtun nationalism was a serious challenge Pakistan faced in its infancy long before losing its eastern wing, which is now Bangladesh
The idea of 'Sufism', which in its present form has little to do with saints and their teachings, has long mutated with the association of those helming shrines purely by virtue of heredity with corrosive power, patronage, and vanity By Sameer Arshad Khatlani When Mardan Shah, better known as Pir Pagara, died in 2012 in … Continue reading How Association With Corrosive Power Mutated Idea Of Sufism
Prohibition in Pakistan has been relaxed over the years with provincial governments granting more permits to individuals and hotels to sell alcohol amid a debate on the benefits of the liquor ban
Urdu-Speaking Muhajirs accounted for 3.5 percent of united Pakistan’s population in the 1960s but they occupied 21 percent of the positions in the civil services that helped them shape the country in its infancy including through the adoption of their mother tongue as the national language
One Prime Minister ended up losing his life and another almost spent the rest of it behind bars despite thinking they covered all the bases for having the right man for Pakistan's top job: Army chief
Khan has precipitated the worst crisis for the military since last decade when a lawyers’ movement forced Pervez Musharraf out of power and it later failed to detect Osama bin Laden’s presence in Abbottabad, Pakistan’s equivalent of Sandhurst
Imran Khan’s falling out with the Pakistani military follows a pattern since the 1960s when Ayub Khan handpicked Zulfikar Ali Bhutto as his foreign minister at 35 in 1963 before the young politician revolted against his mentor two years later for failing to capitalize on the gains in the 1965 war and losing it with India at the negotiation table
Pakistan’s judiciary has had an unenviable record of legitimizing military rulers under the 'doctrine of necessity but has also over the decades managed to stand out by exerting a check on the executive and the military establishment
