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Friday Dec 11, 2020
A few months back, a follower of the religious cleric, Khadim Hussain Rizvi, approached me at the Karachi Press Club. He said Rizvi, leader of the right-wing political party, Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), wanted to meet me when he next visited Karachi.
“He [Rizvi] wants to share a few things with you,” I was told. I agreed to the meeting. But it never materialised, as Rizvi’s visit to the city was postponed.
On November 19, the 54-year-old firebrand cleric died, bringing an end to a brief but action-packed era, where his political party, the TLP, emerged from the unknown and jolted the 2018 national polls.
Pakistani Democracy and Afghan Peace: Op-Ed
Starting with General Zia-ul-Haq’s martial law in the late 1970s, the anomaly of military control has become a permanent feature of Pakistan’s hybrid military-civilian system. Over the years it has also become a factor in tilting the balance in favor of the generals when it comes to calling the shots in framing the security and foreign policies of the state.
Pakistan’s Afghan policy has remained so completely in the control of the country’s military of the Inter-Services-Intelligence (ISI) in particular for so long, that the political class, both in the government and in the opposition, seem to have been totally cut off from dealing with it.
Remembering Sherbaz Khan Mazari, the Dehradun Cadet Who Helped Frame the Pakistani Constitution
Imprisoned dozens of times by both military and civilian rulers, he remained steadfast in his devotion to a federal, democratic Pakistan. There aren t many left like him.
Sherbaz Khan Mazari. Photo: Twitter/@EngrAamirBhatti
One cold night in October 1947, some Muslim boys were woken up from sleep in their dormitory at the Prince of Wales Royal Indian Military College (RIMC), Dehradun. They were told to pack up quickly and leave; their destination was Pakistan. Communal riots had broken out and there was an imminent threat to the RIMC. They were first escorted by a Gurkha posse and later evacuated to Lahore under Colonel (later general) Tikka Khan.