February 28, 2021
The recent disappearance of presiding officers in a by-election in Daska shows that public machinery is being used for narrow political ends
“Ustad Marhoom,” an eccentric and anachronistic character in Ibne Insha’s magnum opus
Khumar-i-Gandum used a book,
English Teacher as a weapon of mass harassment. The Ustad used his book to instil terror in the hearts of all his acquaintances who laid any claim to proficiency in the English language. Even otherwise, reasonably educated individuals were wary of seeing the Ustad. The reason behind the reluctance to face the Ustad was not exactly lack of proficiency in the English language. It was the sheer unpredictability with which the Ustad started asking his unsuspecting audience the English translation of different vegetable names catalogued in his book that kept the poor people on their toes.