Nadeem F. Paracha is a researcher and senior columnist for Dawn Newspaper and Dawn.com. He is also the author of ten books on the social and political history of Pakistan.
Failed ideologies often enter a “zombie state”, becoming a set of hollow rituals and rhetoric, cut off from reality. But persistent political anxieties express themselves in this void with monsters of their times.
Updated15 Feb, 202610:08am
From Afghan militancy in the 1980s and 1990s to the Middle East’s sectarian militias and from Africa to Balochistan, modern history is filled with states that created violent proxies, only for them to become existential threats to themselves.
Published08 Feb, 202607:39am
The survival of holy texts in the aftermath of natural catastrophes is often termed "Divine protection", revealing the cultural and spiritual narratives people love to attach to such instances.
Published01 Feb, 202607:00am
As political narratives lose their grip, governance across the world is increasingly being shaped by pragmatism, data and outcomes rather than dogma.
Published25 Jan, 202606:03am
Pakistan’s national ‘doctrine’ has continued to mutate according to the whims of those in power, thus resulting in an often erratic and haphazard approach to strategy-building.
Published18 Jan, 202608:10am
From the counterculture of the 1960s to today’s ‘Gen Z revolutions’, mass uprisings have repeatedly failed to dismantle power.
Updated11 Jan, 202611:33am
From Bangladesh to India and Pakistan, lynchings have become a grim substitute for justice, but South Asia’s mobs are not simply spontaneous eruptions of rage.
Updated04 Jan, 202611:24am
Pakistan’s hybrid regime has hardened into a lasting political order, where political parties and civilian leaders exist within carefully managed limits.
Updated28 Dec, 202511:36am
From e-challans to clamping down on fake news, almost everything is lazily labelled as ‘Orwellian’ these days by people who do not understand exactly what George Orwell's writing was critiquing.
Updated21 Dec, 202511:27am
From Iran in 1979 to America in 2016 and Pakistan today, analysts continue reaching for historical parallels to predict the future
Updated15 Dec, 202503:29pm
From Islamabad to Pyongyang, authoritarian rulers often use myths, ‘magic’ and the ‘supernatural’ to command loyalty, silence
Updated07 Dec, 202512:17pm
While it is wise to question everything in the information age, questioning the obvious is not an exercise in critical thinking.
Updated30 Nov, 202510:47am
As political disagreements turn into social suspicion and emotional hostility, a new form of division is taking root around the world.
Published23 Nov, 202505:53am
Across the world, romanticised expectations of democracy have collided with social realities, resulting in a pragmatic turn where stability outranks ideals.
Updated16 Nov, 202509:57am
Karachi’s maritime soul — once buried under waves of migration from landlocked regions — is now re-emerging and redefining.
Published09 Nov, 202507:03am
The phrase "Afghanistan is the graveyard of empires" is perpetuated by the Taliban as a way to mythologise the image of the 'invincible' Afghan.
Updated26 Oct, 202510:05am
Sectarian outfits in Pakistan, such as the TLP, remain outsiders to the ideological lineage of the Palestinian struggle they claim to defend.
Updated19 Oct, 202510:33am
From activists to politicians — societies routinely construct, romanticise and discard their chosen symbols of virtue and rebellion.
Updated12 Oct, 202512:12pm
Constant interchangeable usage of the terms "Islamic" and "Muslim" in public discourse has resulted in an inability amongst most to understand the difference between the two.
Updated05 Oct, 202510:28am
