Articles by Mohammed Hanif
News & Politics »
The army and its advocates in the media often worry about Pakistan’s image, as if we are not suffering from a long-term serious illness, but a seasonal bout of acne that just needs better skin care.
Arts & Culture, Books »
Suhail Waraich’s Qatil Kaun will take you as close to Bhutto’s assassins, their facilitators and shielders as you’re ever likely to get.
People »
A young man’s journey from the backwaters to bright lights, big city – and how the literary seed was sown…
News & Politics »
From religious overreach to conspiracy mongering, Mohammed Hanif looks back at a decade when Pakistan lost its mind.
News & Politics »
It has been two years since Benazir Bhutto’s assassination. Here, Mohammed Hanif remembers her life and how it crossed his.
News & Politics »
Why does Pakistan defer to Saudi Arabia when it is hypocritically puritanical and corrupt?
Arts & Culture, Books, People, Q & A »
I continue to receive calls from young aspiring writers, mostly from smaller towns, who tell me that they, like the protagonist of the novel, have started a ‘blue register’ of their own to record their la likhaee (non-writings). I have strongly felt that the novel does have the potential to bring about a deeply transforming effect on some, let us say ‘vulnerable’ type of readers. As regards the response of the writer community, well, it ranges from honest critical appreciation to hushed indifference to the occasional barbed one-liners like ‘I hate all types of Baghs,’ ‘I would rather call it Kala Bagh’ or even unprintable stuff.
News & Politics »
Mullahs, maulvis, imamas, or ulema-i-karam as many of them prefer to call themselves, have never had the kind of influence or social standing that they enjoy now. A large part of Pakistan is enthralled by this new generation of evangelists. They are there on prime time TV, they thunder on FM radios between adverts for Pepsi and hair removing cream. In the past few years, they have established fancy websites with embedded videos; mobile phone companies offer their sermons for download right to your telephone.
Loading ...
here’s to four years of KU fun:)