Journeys to democracy

Note: Partial listing (very out-of-date, trying to update slowly, slowly – anyone have a better suggestion?)

India-Pakistan Relations: What the Kafkaesque Case of a Repatriated Cattle-Herder Tells Us, The Wire, 29 Jan. 2021

Why Restoring Press Freedom Globally Should Take Precedence on Biden’s Priority List, with James McManus, The Wire, 27 Jan. 2021 

The outrage culture about rape masks a landscape of pervasive child abuse, The News on Sunday, 27 Sept. 2020.

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A Battle for the Soul of Pakistan, The Wire, 17 Feb. 2017

Salute to a stellar actor and courageous humanist: Farewell Om Puri (October 18, 1950 – Jan. 6, 2017), Aman ki Asha, 7 Jan. 2017

Binge-watching desi films, The News on Sunday, 1 Jan. 2017

As tensions rise between India and Pakistan, we remember a friend who called for peace, PRI, 28 Oct, 2017

World Polio Day, Oct 24: ‘Any number more than zero is too much’, The News on Sunday, 23 Oct, 2016

Finding lost heritage: Pakistan’s Sikh legacy, Himal Southasian, 23 Aug, 2016

Lifting the veil: Queer life undercover in South Asia, The Boston Globe, 31 July, 2016

Five-part series on Pakistan’s first nation-wide student movement in The Friday Times:
1. The blood in the streets, 8 Jan 2016
2. The Struggle For Democratic Spaces in Pakistan – II, 5 Feb, 2016
3. Oldest trick in the book, Feb 12, 2016
4. The struggle for democratic spaces in Pakistan – IV, Feb 26, 2016
5. High school rebels, 11 March 2016

India’s Crusader Against Impunity – Manoj Mitta on carnage in India, 1984 and 2002, IPS, Oct 29, 2014

Poison in the body politic, The News on Sunday, Oct 26, 2014

Human rights: Pakistan’s Ahmadis Faced with Death or Exile, IPS, Oct 20, 2014

India, Pakistan should focus on children — not bullets, interview in TOI, Oct 15, 2014

Thirty years after 1984 Sikh carnage, ‘Kultar’s Mime’ underscores truths about victimhood and violence, Scroll.in, Oct 12, 2014

Pakistan’s Nobel Laureates – united by the tragedy of militancy, Scroll.in, Oct 11, 2014

“My only durable identity is my humanity” – Indian Consul General Akhilesh Mishra, The News/Aman ki Asha, Sept 3, 2014

Remembering Anita Ghulam Ali, The News on Sunday, Aug 17, 2014

Hamid Ansari: Mumbai man missing in Pakistan (we treat each other’s citizens differently), The News, July 11, 2014

“I lay his poems on my lips and sip at leisure” – Gulzar on Naseer Ahmed Nasir, Aman ki Asha, July 9, 2014

Pakistan’s media wars – my article for Himal Southasian, Himal Southasian, July 4, 2014

Tricks of the Dirty Tricks Brigade, The News on Sunday, June 15, 2014

Pakistan/India: There is no honour in killing… End the culture of impunity, The News, June 6, 2014

Masood Hasan: A man who represented all that is good and decent, The News, June 2, 2014

Commitment personified: The Orangi Pilot Project and Legacy of Architect Perween Rehman, The News on Sunday, April 21, 2014

Boston and Mastung, Pakistan: Two cities where love is stronger than terror, Global Post, April 15, 2014

Hope and inspiration: What Mastung blast survivors need now, The News on Sunday, April 7, 2014

Hamid Mir and the ideological security establishment, Viewpoint Online, April 2014

The Southasian penumbra, in The News, and Hard News, India, March 2014

“Art for art’s sake is fine, but with a social consciousness it’s even better” – Nandita Das, The News on Sunday, March 23, 2014

Afridi’s googly and CII’s no ball, The News, March 14, 2014

Pakistani Women Hit Hurdles in Medical Profession, IPS, March 8, 2014

Pakistan/India: One history, two narratives, The News, Pakistan, and Hard News, India, March 6, 2014

When urban planning meets disaster management and mental health, The News on Sunday, Feb 23, 2014

The February 12 pledge, terrorism, and the Malala connection, The News on Sunday,Feb 12, 2014

India/Pakistan: Asha ki Kiran, The News, Aman ki Asha, Feb 6, 2014

Musharraf or Zia… A dictator is a dictator, The News and Hardnews, Jan 30, 2014

Musharraf’s trial and Pakistan, International Business Times, London, Jan 23, 2014.

Nitu’s mission: Save Kiran, The News and TOI blogs, Jan 6, 2014

Pakistan, India and Aman ki Asha: The year that was, and looking ahead, The News Special Supplement, Jan 1, 2014

Media/Pakistan: Worse than Maya Khan. The vigil-aunty TV moral brigade strikes again, The News, Pakistan and Hardnews, India.Dec 23, 2013

‘Chittagong’: ordinary people, extraordinary courage, The News, Pakistan and Hardnews, India, Dec, 2013

Play for peace: Mahesh Bhatt’s ‘Milne Do’, The News, Dec 6, 2013

India /Pakistan – That elusive visa: You can’t just ‘Google it’, The News, and TOI blog, Nov 23, 2013

Beyond security issues: A ‘wow’ moment and an inspiring video, – The Citizen’s Foundation, The News, Nov 13, 2013

“Why are India and Pakistan at war?” asks 14-year old Kshitij…, News and TOI blog, Nov 4, 2013

Obituary: Samina Quraeshi : Bridging worlds, Nov, 2013

The Other, for us and them, The Indian Express, India, Aug 30, 2013

Boston Marathon bombings: a Pakistani perspective, Global Post, Apr 27, 2013

‘This is not about Shia or Sunni but barbarians hijacking our religion and our country’, March 10, 2013

Boston vigil in solidarity with Shi’ite Muslims of Pakistan: A timeline of terror, March 6, 2013

No, we won’t lay down our weapons…, March 4, 2013

Accountability is key. Along with the democratic political process, Feb 28, 2013

Campaign against VDay but not against LeJ, Feb 17, 2013

RIP Ayesha Haroon: Clear-sighted courage, grace and laughter, The News, Feb 4, 2013

Pakistan: What the Tuq is going on? Anna Hazare, anyone? The Telegraph, Kolkata, Jan 21, 2013

LoC tensions: Need facts, not hype, Jan 14, 2013

Ongoing protest in Quetta; mourners refuse to bury their dead until action is promised, Jan 12, 2013

Need to move beyond outrage against selected rape cases, Dec 29, 2012

You know it’s India-Pakistan when… (The sad case of Idrees Alam, ‘The Nowhere Man’), Aman ki Asha, Dec 19, 2012

India-Pakistan ‘reunification’? Why not a South Asian Union?, Dec 19, 2012

Indian Supreme Court acquits Pakistani prisoner Dr Chishty, Dec 13, 2012

Local Opposition Rises Against Fracking Infrastructure Proposal, IPS, Nov 29, 2012

The dangers of ignoring ‘malicious intent’ while accusing of ‘injuring religious sentiments’, The New Humanist, London, Nov-Dec 2012 (included in the Editors’ pick of top 10 articles from 2012)

Iqbal Haider, we’ll miss your ‘groove’, Nov 18, 2012

Malala’s plight is “related to the potential for world peace”, Oct 22, 2012

‘We are sorry,” say Pakistanis; clean up for peace, fundraise for burnt church, Sept 27, 2012

Lest we forget…. other minors in Pakistan accused of ‘blasphemy’, Sept 6, 2012

Inspiring musical video tribute to Ahmed Faraz from his son Sarmad, Aug 28, 2012

Fragments of thoughts beyond pain #ShiaGenocide, Aug 19, 2012

65 years on… Reviving Jagannath Azad’s poem for Pakistan, Aug 14, 2012

Former DSF activist Dr Ghalib Lodhi makes a quiet exit, Aug 3, 2012

Of political wisdom, restraint, and rotten eggs #socmm12, Aman ki Asha, July 18, 2012

Call for peace via social media #socmm12 #Karachi, July 14, 2012

R.I.P. Cass. You fought the good fight., July 13, 2012

The media and Surjit Sarjit Sarjeet Surjeet Sarabjit Sarabjeet, June 29, 2013

Surjeet and Sarabjit: IndPak prisoners’ issue, June 28, 2012

Pakistan squash to get a boost from US partners, The News, June 27, 2012

PM’s contempt conviction in context: Pakistan – a political timeline, June 21, 2012

Sex trafficking snares hundreds of thousands of American children, Global Post, June 20, 2012

Quetta Youth Festival 2012: Winds of change? June 16, 2012

The Kohistan ‘video scandal’ in context, The News on Sunday, June 10, 2012

Beyond business, The News Special Edition, May 10, 2012, on how the Aman ki Asha Indo-Pak Business Meets started

Soft power, woman power: Forging a new security paradigm, Global Post, May 7, 2012

Bengali “Crossfire” reaches U.S., Latitude News, May 4. 2012

Samaa TV’s apology and Maya Khan’s smiling (not) apology, Jan 25, 2012

No to vigil-aunties: thousands protest media’s moral policing in Pakistan, Jan 25, 2012

India-Pakistan prisoners – fishermen, POWs, and more, Jan 11, 2012

Salmaan Taseer: The political context of a ‘religious’ assassination, Jan 7, 2012

‘Memogate’ commission should examine existing evidence, not create new evidence, Jan 3, 2012

Seema Sehgal: The ‘Bulbul-e-Kashmir’ sings for Indo-Pak peace, Dec 31, 2011

People for peace: 8th PIPFPD Joint Convention, Allahabad, Dec 29, 2011

Four years on… Remembering Benazir Bhutto, Dec 27, 2011

Zarteef Khan Afridi: An Unlikely Hero… The tribesman who showed the way, Latitude News and The News on Sunday, Dec 19, 2011

Pakistan: A Thousand Separate Worlds, Brown Alumni Monthly, Nov 2011, review of Pamela Constable’s ‘Playing with Fire: Pakistan at War with Itself’

A voice for peace, and for the ‘ordinary people’ – RIP Murtaza Razvi, The News, April 29, 2011

Pakistani women waging peace the world over, Global Post, April 29, 2011

Picture this: World traveler takes photos that make us care, Latitude News, April 25, 2011

Trade winds for peace: In the air, a hope song, The News, April 23, 2011, India Pakistan breakthroughs on the trade front.

Music: Touching the soul, defying the Taliban, April 14, 2011

Peace. Action. Karachi. Lessons from Liberian women, The News, April 6, 2011

Projecting Quaid-e-Azam as ‘secular’ is treason? March 20, 2011

Why should peace be excluded from St Patrick’s Day? Global Post, March 20, 2011

Acid survivors fight back: a story of hope amidst despair, IPS, March 8, 2011

Pakistan’s first ever Oscar: saving face – or losing it? Common Ground News, March 6, 2011

Pakistani-Americans Await Changes to India’s Discriminatory Visa Rules, IPS, Feb 16, 2011

Salmaan Taseer’s Death Is Liberal Pakistan’s Loss, Tehelka, India, Jan 15, 2011

India and Pakistan are stronger together, The Guardian, London, Oct 5, 2010

‘Stanczak’s murder: The tragic human cost of a larger war’, for weekly Wprost, Poland, Feb 21, 2009

Taliban Cloud Moves to Pakistan – comment for IPS titled PAKISTAN/INDIA: Taliban As Common Enemy’ on Pakistan’s attempt to identify the enemy as ‘taliban’ rather than ‘India’, 17 Feb, 2009.

The Nightmare Must End– comment published in Dawn, Feb 7, 2009 on the ‘jihadi’ forces and their territorial ambitions

Obama Inauguration Brings Hope, Scepticism – article for IPS, Jan 21, 2009, also on Chowk

INDIA/PAKISTAN: Pleas For Sanity as Sabres Rattle Over Mumbai Mayhem – comment for IPS, Dec 1, 2008

There is no ‘honour’ in killing, The News, Sept 2008, on the women ‘buried alive’ for ‘honour’ in Quetta

Watching Musharraf’s resignation from Pakistan, a behind the scenes look, in Anderson Cooper 360°, CNN.com, Aug 19, 2008

Support Pakistan’s secular mass movement, Op-Ed, The Boston Globe, June 13, 2007

Fighting Hudood, protecting women, Himal Southasian, June 2006

The New Media and the Earthquake, Chowrangi magazine, USA, Spring 2006 (reproduced by Peaceworks)

Kashmir’s earthquake: don’t care or don’t know? in Open Democracy, 14 Nov 2005

Misguided Generosity – Column Personal Political in The News, reproduced by Countercurrents, 07 Nov, 2004, about then Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz’s ‘generous’ offer to help Nepal crush the Maoist insurgency

Pakistan’s “war against terror”: Not by military means alone, Project Syndicate, USA, September 16, 2004

Musharrafising a monarchy? Column Personal Political in The News, and in Chowk, 12 Apr, 2004, about Nepali King Gyanendra’s personally ambitious “Musharraf tendencies”

The Cook, the Rice and The Father of Pakistan’s Nuclear Bomb, Panos Features, UK, March 2004

Violence in South Asia, Communalism Combat 83, Mumbai, India, January 2003

Brutality cloaked in tradition, Op-Ed, The New York Times, USA, Aug 6, 2002

Media in Pakistan, September 11 and beyond, OpenDemocracy, UK, November 2001

Champions of Independent Journalism in Pakistan, in Equality and Quality: A Celebration of Women in Journalism, International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), Brussels, June 2001

The shrinking space for dissent in Pakistan, The Observer (Guardian), U.K. April 30, 2001

Women pay as fundamentalism grips Pakistan, report on the implications of the ‘Shariat Bill’, Ms Magazine, New York, June-July 1999

Transformation From Within: Women’s Education in Pakistan, Overseas, Royal Over-Seas League quarterly journal, London, June 1998

Justice for Zainab Noor, IPS, July 17, 1994 Pg. 1 1994-IPS-Zainab Noor Pg. 2 1994-IPS-Zainab Noor2 Pg. 3 1994-IPS-Zainab Noor3 Pg. 4 1994-IPS-Zainab Noor4

Losing our heritage? The Frontier Post, 1991 PDF at: 1991-FP-Lakshmi Mansions-save,