7 years ago, on January 18, 2016, I wrote:
“Bitterly cold day as I cross No Man's Land. Off to pay my respects at the Martyrs' Well in Ajnala where the bodies of native sepoys (who rebelled at the Mianmir Cantt in Lahore in 1857 & who were summarily executed at Ajnala) were 1/n disposed on a rainy day all those years ago.”
It was to be a memorable trip as some elderly Sikh gentlemen present at the site received very warmly a person who suddenly stepped out of the fog - and across the fog - spoke to them in Punjabi and respectfully asked to be guided 2/n

عمران خان کے اخلاقی کردار کی گراوٹ کے بارے میں بچپن سے سنتے چلے آ رہے ہیں۔ کم از کم مجھے ان #audioleaks پر کوئی حیرت نہیں۔ پر کئی سوال پیدا ہوتے ہیں اور میرے نزدیک ان کے جواب یہ ہیں۔
س۔ کیا عمران خان کی ذاتی زندگی اس طرح سے منظر عام پہ لائی جانی چاہیے؟
ج۔ نہیں۔ کسی کی بھی
۱/۷ پریویسی اس طرح پامال نہیں ہونی چاہیے۔ اب یہ دیکھنا پڑے گا کہ ریکارڈ کس نے کیا اور کیا وہ غیر قانونی تھا۔ اگر حساس ادارے یہ کر رہے ہیں تو یہ سرکاری وسائل اور اختیار کا غلط استعمال ہے۔ اور سیاست دانوں کو کنٹرول کرنے کا طریقہ۔ سیاست دانوں کی ۲/۷

#ImranKhan’s political lack of acumen (he has cunning) has meant that he has managed to fall from positions of great strength. 1st VONC. Having been shuttled into power with vast popular support & Deep State support, he managed to fall out with allies, under perform & take 1/11 all kinds of unnecessary steps to entrench himself. Destabilised/made insecure too many & pulled himself down. Post VONC because of PDM divide/indecisions, his big jalsas, by-election victories & constant politicking he managed to resurrect himself. All he needed to do was 2/11

At prospect of IK’s compromising videos following reactions from followers: (1) They are fake. Shows there isn’t any capacity or intent to objectively gauge or to ask for legit forensics. It’s blind faith. This despite the fact that the man has a long & known past of sexual 1/11 escapades & promiscuity. Also it would matter if any clips were recent or from distant past. Because if recent & authentic then quite apart from Arts 62/63 piety clauses & his entire persona & political use of Islam there is also the Q of how such activity can compromise 2/11

Reminders for IK Red Liners. 1) we opposed illegal detention/torture against citizens in the past. You laughed & said they deserve it. 2) We always said don’t brand people as thieves, traitors & heretics. You continued to presume guilt & abused them 3) We said military has 1/10 always meddled in politics/has commercial agendas. You called us unpatriotic for this. 4) We said judiciary direly needs reforms. You called it contempt of court. 5) We said an elected PM ousted by deep state. You said he should be thrown in a dungeon for life. 6) We said 2/10

What the #SupremeCourt Order fatally doesn’t appear 2 account for is the following: (1) Political parties run as fiefdoms/personality cults in Pakistan. What if the party head does egregious things or becomes an erratic & dangerous egomaniac or otherwise 1/5 #COAS #HamzaShahbaz undermines democratic principles/norms or commits other outrages? (2) What if he then becomes entrenched because of the initial calculus of seats? Is a member then bound to not dissent on essentially national & larger than party considerations? An additional question is that 2/5

An ego-centric cricket player finally found prominence in politics when he was adopted/catapulted by Deep State. He made an ass of himself in office & was ousted by a valid VONC. His ego couldn't take it & he declared everyone except himself a traitor, claimed that a foreign 1/n conspiracy ousted him, announced threat to his life, said nation ought to be nuked instead of his opponents coming to power, & exhorted Deep State to readopt him or else. Along the way he started posturing as if divinely anointed, routinely slandered his opponents, & incited 2/n

Imran khan came to power supported by a cultish fan base; a hopeful following; blatant military support; coalition partners; lotas & big financiers. This was the base of his so-called tabdeeli. He then strutted & fretted upon the stage for 4 years with very little to show. 1/10 His core cult is intact & vocal (amplified by some partisan media); chunks of his following (rural & urban working classes & more sensible middle/upper middle class voters - tired of empty slogans) has eroded, military has badly burnt fingers but some loyal top brass remains 2/10

FIRs in #MasjidENabvi Outrage DON'T allege blasphemy. ESSENTIAL to understand. Context: Chapter XV of Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) contains offences against religion. It has pre-Zia colonial era sections & post-Zia blasphemy sections. Colonial era sections stem from Indian 1/8 Penal Code, 1860. Meant to protect freedom of exercise of religion & prevent one person from insulting religion of another. Thus curbing of hate speech & resulting law & order disruption & dissolution of society. Importantly, they are meant for all religions & to protect each 2/8

HOPE
These are dark times. But for different reasons for different people. In this doom & gloom I see 15 positives. Call me an eternal optimist. My perspective purely that of someone who wants to see civilian supremacy, democratic continuity & constitutionalism. So here goes 1/10 1) IK’s ouster has meant resounding PTI attack on role of Deep State (for wrong reasons - they want it to help) but that means a larger section of Pakistanis questioning Deep State
2) Deep State seems to be questioning its role & may likely stay neutral in next election 2/10

Is voting against your own party’s PM allowed? Does it involve a moral issue? Is it allowed but carries a cost? Imp questions taken up by SC but in an opaque fashion? Snr & much respected SC lawyer Abid Hasan Minto sahib writes an open letter to SC raising imp Qs about its 1/7 shutting out other imp stakeholders/interested parties in this matter of great public importance. It also raises questions as to whether a moral hazard attaches to such a vote. Related to these Qs is the imp question to my mind of whether the Vote of No Confidence mechanism 2/7

This is how Institutions Decline and Fall.

(A Tragedy in 5 Paragraphs & 20 Sentences)

A Con Man applied for a faculty position at a well known local university. He said he had a Master’s degree but that he was enrolled in a prestigious university abroad for a PhD. He wasn’t 1/ special but the PhD enrollment tilted the balance & he was hired with the expectation that he would finish his doctorate in a year.

A few years passed & then some faculty pointed out that there was no news on his PhD & the university should check. The Con Man made excuses & 2/

A clarification for those who aren’t quite clear on concept of defense attorney. A just system of law aims to provide an able defense attorney to every accused as you are not guilty till proven to be & that too through a fair, transparent process. That’s what makes a system of 1/ justice based on due process of law actually just. We need due process because humankind has a long, terrible history of punishing the innocent, lynchings, inquisitions, kangaroo courts, one-sided trials & all kinds of travesties. Also because all cases not open & shut cases. 2/

Bleeding 🩸 Heart ♥️ Alert: Just extricated my aged mother & aunt from the #ExpoCenter COVID vaccination 💉 experience as there was a much greater chance of getting run over by a wheel chair, suffocating or getting the virus 🦠 through the throng of disorganised people there 1/ The first few days were smooth because ruling party politicos & bureaucracy present & very few people came as rampant confusion on process. After registration, alerts as to date, location & also codes not received by many. So info through hearsay. We were registered at Health 2/

As good a morning as any to read The Old Testament. Illuminating to visit in entirety these vast, ancient texts/their well known edicts. Remarkable how profoundly western lit/thought/art influenced. Every 4th phrase the title of a book, every 3rd a proverb, every scene a painting East of Eden - John Steinbeck. Genesis 4:16. Cain condemned to a lifetime of wandering after killing Abel and goes east of Eden to the Land of Nod.

From purely commonsensical standpoint the Senate rejection of votes ruling nonsensical (1) no separate box as such. It’s all one rectangle with name & some white space (2) Instructions don’t specify where in box to stamp - so can be anywhere (3) Footage that oral instructions 1/4 being given also vague & appear to allow stamping anywhere in the box (4) Even if stamp is on candidate name, intent of voter abundantly clear. No ambiguity who vote is for. Rejection of votes over technical & w/out basis. Could’ve designed better forms & been clearer that 2/4

#AlBeruniRadius initiative is commendable. However, has to be approached with great sensitivity & sense. Else it too will turn into a dump. My 2 cents why. On a lovely spring day 5 yrs ago I hiked up Nandana hill with a cousin. The hills are steep, stark & riddled with scree 1/ wild vegetation & boulders. Approaching it, there's a lovely little village with ber & date palm orchards, large banyans & clear water channels. The hike takes one along a seasonal spring, lush vegetation & dense thickets. The climb up not tough but the winding path overgrown 2/

Friends. Some months ago I had shared the idea that acclaimed writer & translator Musharraf Ali Farooqi & I had to excavate, annotate & print in high quality a classic of world literature – Tilism-e-Hoshruba. I had also shared why this magical piece of work has tremendous 1/ literary, cultural & civilizational significance for us & why it needs to be made available in a much more authentic, approachable & attractive form. Together we, therefore, put together Project Hoshruba to take this forward. Project Hoshruba website now up. 2/

In 2007 during #Musharraf’s #Emergency I was invited by my alma mater in US to come & speak about it. This was a time when Musharraf Govt sent a delegation with Kashmala Tariq as part of it to promote it’s stance. My talk went well. There was a clear divide between US Govt’s 1/ & US academia’s stance towards Musharraf & his travesties. As it turned out I was then invited by several other universities/other platforms to speak & did my best to push back against Musharraf’s illegal policies. A day or so before my departure back home some lawyer friends 2/

Not so long after #ASuitableBoy came out I first met #VikramSeth autographing copies at #Blackwells at #Oxford. When my turn came he asked where I was from. I told him. He warmed up - he was already fairly jovial with those present - & told me how he learnt Urdu for the novel 1/ that he loved Urdu poetry & wished to visit Pakistan. He wrote a couple of sentences in Urdu on my copy. Turned out he was an alumnus of #corpuschristi which I was attending & which had recently made him Honorary Fellow. I asked him for an interview which he very graciously 2/

Remembering #Anarkali (from #SnuffingOuttheMoon)"he caught sight of a pomegranate tree & its blood‑red blossoms—& he thought of Anarkali. Only a score of years had passed & yet, Anarkali was already a legend
rather than a memory. Being entombed alive in a wall had
that effect 1/ But that face—like a dew-­covered pomegranate blossom—still lingered in the mind. Had she breathed her last in the close embrace of brick & mortar or was the rumour
true that her mother managed to contrive her escape? In the days after her condemnation by Emperor Akbar for 2/