Khaled Ahmed was born in 1943 in Jallandhar during the siege of Stalingrad. He has been an opinion writer based in Pakistan for the past 40 years. Over his decades of experience, he has worked for <em>The Pakistan Times, The Nation, The Frontier Post, The Friday Times and The Daily Times, three of which have been closed down either permanently or temporarily. He is now consulting editor at Newsweek Pakistan, based in Lahore.</em> Ahmed graduated from Government College Lahore during the 1965 war with India with an MA (Honours) on the roll of honour, along with a diploma in German from Punjab University. In 1970, he received a diploma in Russian (Interpretation) from Moscow State University. In 2006, he wrote the book, Sectarian War: Sunni-Shia Conflict in Pakistan at the Woodrow Wilson Centre in Washington DC.
Wisdom From The Fringe
In era of ideology and nationalism, reflections on what ails Pakistan.
When you want to put a lock on the collective mind, you embrace “ideology”. This is a recipe for creating a uniform mind but you have to add a bit of punishment to make it hold. Religion comes in handy because it allows you to punish deviation. In case the state pretends to be democratic, there will always be the “condemned” fringe opinion that the brainwashed nation takes pleasure in abominating. Such a situation now obtains in both India and Pakistan. In Pakistan the “marginalised” wisdom of the “rejected” is contained in a new book, Rethinking Pakistan: A 21st Century Perspective, put together by Bilal Zahoor and Raza Rumi. Some extracts will arouse interest and rage in equal measure.
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario