Stories by Umair Javed

Umair Javed teaches politics and sociology at Lums. Find him on Twitter @umairjav

Umair Javed
Respite needed

Respite needed

All one can fear is a familiar accounting exercise that aims to extract a few more rupees from a narrow, weary economic base. Updated 08 Jun, 2026 08:59am
5,000 years of Pakistan?

5,000 years of Pakistan?

Any serious and sustained interrogation of the Pakistani state’s cultural politics would inevitably bring the tension between projected identity and geography to the surface. Updated 25 May, 2026 08:35am
Returns on multipolarity

Returns on multipolarity

In the current moment, emerging multipolarity is actually strengthening the status quo in both politics and economics. Updated 11 May, 2026 08:33am
Geography or ethnicity

Geography or ethnicity

If ethnic identities were perennial status groups, such assimilation would be considerably harder. Updated 02 Mar, 2026 09:33am
Land of the unclear

Land of the unclear

The government’s fixation on net-metering is a red herring. Updated 16 Feb, 2026 09:26am
Conflicts of the future

Conflicts of the future

Curious about what the adoption of AI will herald, many students are concerned with their own personal futures. Updated 02 Feb, 2026 09:27am
Shortcuts to growth

Shortcuts to growth

There is no straightforward path to growth that doesn’t see us back to square one in a year or so. Updated 19 Jan, 2026 09:20am
A lost decade

A lost decade

Inflation may have subsided since 2024 but dynamism in the economy is still missing. Updated 05 Jan, 2026 09:44am
Recovering history

Recovering history

Ilyas Chattha’s new book shows how formal ideals of citizenship run afoul of political exigencies and nationalist ideologies Updated 22 Dec, 2025 08:53am
Reviving Basant

Reviving Basant

A public festival such as Basant remains an important corrective, even if it only lasts a weekend. Updated 08 Dec, 2025 09:06am
Going back in time

Going back in time

The current configuration of governance is not too dissimilar to what the British envisioned in the early 20th century. Updated 24 Nov, 2025 09:43am
Preserving the past

Preserving the past

There has been a mild rethink of the us­­ual religion-inflected, homogenising idea of what this country really is and what constitutes its past. Updated 10 Nov, 2025 09:24am
A false binary

A false binary

The debate on what to do with the TLP and TTP is currently caught in a bizarre binary. Updated 27 Oct, 2025 09:36am
A faltering trajectory

A faltering trajectory

Food insecurity remains rampant, with up to 30pc of households reporting an inability to afford three meals a day. Published 13 Oct, 2025 07:09am
AI and human learning

AI and human learning

Merely proclaiming that devoting more time to the process of learning because of its abstract benefits isn’t necessarily a good pitch. Updated 29 Sep, 2025 08:50am
Regional political upheavals

Regional political upheavals

To see conspiracy at play in every episode of mass political rebellion is poor analysis. Updated 15 Sep, 2025 09:21am
Mass ecocide

Mass ecocide

The key debate is on the extent of middle-class complicity in encouraging destructive patterns of real estate development Published 01 Sep, 2025 04:42am
A higher ideal

A higher ideal

Adventurism that puts the lives of people living along the borders at nuclear-tinged risk is still a distinct possibility. Published 18 Aug, 2025 07:05am
Party politics and the NFC

Party politics and the NFC

The NFC award is not some great heist that the provinces performed on an unsuspecting centre. Updated 04 Aug, 2025 09:53am