Asif Akhtar
It is paradoxical that the state would feel justified in curtailing the press that was instrumental in making Pakistan.
Updated 17 Jul, 2019 01:53pm
So it should have been established by now that Ramazan is Islam on steroids. Anything ordained in the religion under...
Published 12 Aug, 2011 01:19pm
Dear Open Letter Writers, Good day, hope this open letter finds you in the best of spirits. The reason I am writing...
Published 27 Jun, 2011 12:42pm
It was time for Asr, the afternoon prayer. Through the windows of the mosque, daylight flowed in waves of golden...
Published 13 Jun, 2011 12:28pm
Where viewers of western media are rarely subjected to the blood and gore of war, victims of violence in the local...
Published 24 Jan, 2011 07:48am
While the old General seems to have made his way back in to the headlines, it often occurs to me how the Pakistani...
Published 19 Oct, 2010 12:36pm
The second out of three events held to launch Granta Magazine's Pakistan issue was held in collaboration with the...
Published 04 Oct, 2010 11:55am
By now Pakistanis must have gotten used to seeing dossiers and special reports on their country by esteemed Western...
Published 25 Sep, 2010 01:06pm
From lofty and very lonely heights, the foreign writer tries to decipher what went wrong with the game of cricket...
Published 14 Jun, 2010 03:32pm
So looks like its double-whammy for Pakistani entertainment enthusiasts this time. First we get beaten out of the...
Published 21 May, 2010 04:08pm
As the summer kicks off with the onset of the full-on load-shedding season, the Punjab government is trying to show...
Published 12 May, 2010 11:47am
It has been over a week since a private television channel broke the story about Pakistan cricketer Shoaib Malik...
Published 08 Apr, 2010 05:19pm
The past few days have been very eventful as far as public statements in Pakistani politics go. Punjab's Chief...
Published 19 Mar, 2010 01:47pm
Lately, there’ been a lot of talk about talking to the Taliban, and talking to the Taliban about talking to the...
Published 12 Feb, 2010 02:09pm
Pakistan’s recent appearance in the infamous US ‘countries of interest’ list, which isn’t exactly the list of most...
Published 18 Jan, 2010 03:21pm
Today I woke up to the fact that this was in fact the first day following the conclusion of the first decade of the...
Published 01 Jan, 2010 07:11pm
In a previous post I had alluded to a seemingly spontaneous process through which the Pakistani media jumped from ...
Published 21 Dec, 2009 01:55pm
A few weeks ago, The New York Times was thoughtful enough to do a little feature in a video blog titled 'Tuning out...
Published 07 Dec, 2009 04:38pm
Last week, in a blog titled 'The Convenient Curtain of Myth', I tried to show the dangers of viewing international...
Published 20 Nov, 2009 02:12pm
Recently, I met some jihadis who have been in the business of holy war since the 1990s. I was surprised to hear that...
Published 14 Nov, 2009 09:58am