Barring a year as acting editor-in-chief of the Dawn group of publications, Mazhar Ali Khan had not been employed full-time as a journalist for some 16 years when he set up Viewpoint in 1975. Between the government takeover of Progressive Publications Limited (PPL) in 1959, where he was editor of The Pakistan Times, and the end of the Ayub era, he was effectively unemployable in that capacity. Mazhar Ali Khan, almost 30 at the time, found his vocation on the cusp of India and Pakistan’s independence — and partition — when Mian Iftikharuddin, then in the process of setting up PPL, solicited his interest in the post of news editor at The Pakistan Times. He became editor a few years later when the incumbent, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, was arrested in connection with the so-called Rawalpindi Conspiracy Case. (Upon his release, Faiz returned to the paper as editor-in-chief.)

It was my second year of studies at Government College, Lahore when I saw Mazhar Ali Khan for the first time. The occasion was an inter-collegiate debate and we were waiting in a chattering and packed hall for the guest speaker and adjudicators to arrive. All of a sudden, on a signal from somewhere, there was dead silence as Mazhar Ali Khan, the young editor of Pakistan Times, entered from the door at the rear of the hall and walked straight to the dais through the centre isle. He was smartly dressed with a determined and focused look on his face. By his side was Tahira Mazhar...

Sabir Nazar’s cartoons for the Viewpoint [online] ever since its launching on May 22, two years ago, have been winning a lot of appreciation from Viewpoint readers as well as Sabir’s countless fans in the blogospehere. A leading cartoonist known for his excellent strokes with his brush, Sabir is also famous for his sharp wit. He has worked with the Daily Times, The Friday Times, daily Aajkal, and daily Pakistan Today. His weekly cartoons, for the Viewpoint, have become an identity mark and promotional fare for the Viewpoint. As we post Viewpoint’s 100^th online issue, member of Viewpoint’s Redaktion Riaz ul Hassan interviews Sabir Nazar.

The court has with patience and with a generosity of spirit examined the presentation of the learned defense counsel Aitzaz Ahsan ASC and has been unimpressed with his bizarre antics. This is a far cry from the time when he was the doyen of the movement for the rule of law in this country. To our greatest chagrin, he has swapped his penchant for writing vigorous poetry with the unholy desire to defend the larcenous political figures who have squirreled away the national wealth. They could have easily invested...

Greed and sense of insecurity are the two worst psycho cases where a person or in some cases the whole nation is driven with an insatiable desire that seek infinite acquisitions and protections. Leo Tolstoy has very beautifully depicted this tendency in his short story “How much land does a man need?” It talks of a man who is permitted to select as large tract of a land as he can on one condition; before sunset, he has to get back to the spot he begins his selection from. The man, pursuing for a largest piece, dies before reaching the agreed spot and all he gets at the end ...

One of the main causes of our unhappiness, as human persons, is our being divided in time and seeking timeless ONE. Desire for simple ONE holds universal fascination for humanity for we subconsciously endorse that division is painful. The quest for ONE is not just confined to religions but we see the same pursuit in philosophy and science as well. In philosophy and science the pursuit of ONE is called monism. Monism is affirming that there is only one kind of ultimate substance or reality: unitary organic whole with no independent parts. In our times when Stephen Hawking, for example, calls out, “we are getting closer to physicists’ primal dream of “grand unified theory”, he in fact, is celebrating the same fascination with The ONE—singular master key to unlock the all phenomenal secrets.

The so-called scholarly works are often presented in such inaccessible idiom that most readers hardly benefit from them. No doubt, certain complex issues require complex theoretical formulations and professional sophistication. However, in the first place, a scholar’s job is also to simplify a complex issue in a way that it becomes accessible for the many. Secondly, as Noam Chomsky points out, “it’s extremely rare, outside of the natural sciences, to find things that can’t be said in monosyllables.”

It is my contention that if there were a Noble Prize or an Academy Award for corruption, it would have regularly been claimed by the officials running the Islamic Republic of Iran [hereafter IRI]. There is hardly a day that ends without a surprise in Iran. There is not one single government department immune to the virus of corruption. In this short piece, I will highlight a couple of mega corruption scams. There are revelations in the press about Mr. Masha-ee and Mr. Bagha-ee, two...

At the May 6 polls, the radical left-wing coalition Syriza becomes the second "party" in numbers of voters as it moves from 4.5% at the previous elections (2009) to 16.8% (52 MPs instead of 13). It is the first party in the major agglomerations and among people aged 18-35. The Socialist Party (PASOK) lost 2/3 of the votes it had received in 2009 (from 44% to 13.2%, a loss of 119 MPs, from 160 to 41!). PASOK pays ‘cash on the nail’ their rigorous austerity programme and subjection to the ‘Troika’ and big private business interests. New Democracy, the main right-wing party that...

According to the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), 169 people have either gone missing or killed during May 2010 – 30 August 2011. However, a comparison of the AHRC report with the data available on the South Asian Terrorist Portal (SATP) reveals that at least 29 dead persons were not included in the AHRC list. Similarly, the incidents of abduction involving 40 persons were also missing from the AHRC list. In most of the lists issued by the Baloch nationalists, it was observed that non-Baloch victims of abduction and death couldn’t find any space.

No, it has not. But some “scientist” in Pakistan either said it, or was reported (by an idiot journalist) to have said it. I have some professional interest in this topic and wrote about secular trends in height here I would regard this claim (that average height has dropped 4 inches in Pakistan) as complete nonsense for now. Official figures for different countries (as much as is known) are given in this link A quick search of the medical literature turns up no such trend. I did find a publication for India which indicates that Indian average height has increased, though slowly. I would guess the same for Pakistan...

For the past 8 months Baba Jan Hunzai and four fellow activists have languished in various jails of Gilgit. Twice in this period he has been removed from jail and tortured by military and police agents. He and his colleagues have been charged under Pakistan’s Anti-Terrorism Ordinance. Baba Jan, however, is not a terrorist. He is a respected political activist of Gilgit-Baltistan (the mountainous north of Pakistan). He is being held due to his activism in support of the oppressed of the region and must be released immediately. In January 2010, a mountain collapsed into Hunza River and created what is now termed the Attabad Lake. As the lake formed, village after village was submerged. In total, over 1000 were displaced and over 25,000 were cut off from the rest of the country (the lake had destroyed the one road that connects the area to Pakistan). The plight of...

With due anger and sheer frustration, it is stated that the first ever slogan I had heard and chanted as a child was “Naaraye Bhutto: Jeaye Bhutto”. My political consciousness had an upbringing deeply rooted in the surroundings and circumstances when Shaheed Mohatramma Benazir Bhutto took oath as the first women Prime Minister of the Muslim World. The songs I liked were the PPP anthems and the pictures I adored in my childhood were that of Benazir Bhutto and Zulfiqar Bhutto. People of Sindh who idolize Bhuttos, even more than idol-worshippers, always pin their hopes in the PPP government. They hope a PPP government would bring prosperity to their lives, provide jobs and much-awaited relief promised...

Cunningham's next concern was that having spent the money  to  court  the  Mullahs,  it  must  now  be  ascertained whether or not they were actively engaged in anti-Congress propaganda. He wrote that several spies were dispatched to various mosques to observe and report back whether or not the Mullahs were working for their allowances, or absconding from the assigned job! The reports pleased him since they stated that the Mullahs were working hard for their money and were happily  trafficking  in  Islam  for  a  monthly  sum  of  fifteen rupees. The progress made by Hazrat Ali of Swat was a special source of satisfaction. "Hazrat Ali, Wazir-i-Azam of Swat, is doing excellently in Swat and Buner, he uses Pir Baba Ziarat. Hazrat Ali now covers the whole of Swat, Buner and Mardan border."

For almost a decade, Pakistan is mired in all sorts of troubles. Internationally, it is facing ire of the ‘international community’ and domestically, a Taliban blowback. In a single decade it has witnessed a strong military rule, a powerful anti-military rule movement by the civil-society, assassination of its most popular political leader, and return to a fragile democracy. Culling all these ongoing developments in Pakistan, two books have hit the stalls in recent months. Pakistan:Beyond Crisis State is edited by Maleeha Lodhi, former Pakistan ambassador to Washington and editor The News. Owing to her professional engagements, she has been witness to policy making process, especially on foreign policy issues. The other book, The futre of Pakistan, is edited by Stephen. P. Cohen, an academic guru for many South Asia experts and South Asian scholars.