The Rise of Religious Intolerance in Pakistan: Implications for Democratic Development and Human Rights

My talk at the National Endowment for Democracy on religious intolerance in Pakistan. In early November 2014, a mob in Kasur, Pakistan burned a…

Pakistan: At the edge of the abyss?

Pakistan’s blasphemy law is used to fuel violence and death. The recent murder of a brave human rights lawyer Rashid Rehman reminds us of…

Andrew Buncombe: Those who dare to speak out become a shooting target

By Andrew Buncombe Rarely have Pakistan’s religious minorities and liberals felt more beleaguered. Less than two months after the killing of Salmaan Taseer, a…

Is this Jinnah’s Pakistan?

The massacre of Ahmadis in Lahore has once again exposed the inner fissures of our society. As if treating them like second class citizens…

Lahore – a nightmare that is still not over

Updated: my quotes in Tehran Times Today’s events in Lahore have shaken the entire country. The zealots and the bigots aside, an ordinary Pakistani…