Fact vs fiction: Pakistan must accept the uncomfortable truths about the 1971 war

Official discourse reveals and conceals selective aspects of the past, carefully crafting narratives that hide inconvenient histories.

Anam Zakaria

· Jan 11, 2023 · 07:30 pm

What a West Pakistani in the former East Pakistan during the Liberation War of 1971 remembers

Bangladesh observes Victory Day on December 16. An excerpt from ‘1971: A People’s History of Bangladesh, Pakistan and India’, Anam Zakaria.

Anam Zakaria

· Dec 16, 2019 · 08:30 am

The story of a Kashmiri who crossed the Line of Control and returned to India 11 years later

Anam Zakaria’s ‘Between The Great Divide’ is an exploration of the part of Kashmir that is administered by Pakistan.

Anam Zakaria

· Aug 21, 2018 · 05:30 pm

In Pakistan’s Ramzan Bill that aims to outlaw eating in public, a reflection of Gurgaon namaaz row

By enforcing respect for one religion, the Ehtram-e-Ramzan Amendment Bill discourages tolerance for other beliefs.

Anam Zakaria

· Jun 02, 2018 · 12:30 pm

How Pakistan is using language to deny the horrors of Partition

Through politicisation of language, countries try to reconstruct national identities.

Anam Zakaria

· May 10, 2018 · 08:30 pm

By rewriting history, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh are threatening the very identity of their people

India is going down a path its neighbours have walked decades ago.

Anam Zakaria

· Mar 15, 2018 · 08:00 am

70 years of Partition: India, Pakistan have successfully demonised each other in popular imagination

We are on the brink of losing the generation that lived through Partition. With them, memories of a time when Indian and Pakistan were on may go too.

Anam Zakaria

· Aug 18, 2017 · 12:30 pm

‘We’ll never be at home here’: Bangladesh’s Urdu speakers still dream of being resettled in Pakistan

As Pakistan celebrates its 70th Independence Day, elderly ‘Biharis’ are waiting on a forgotten promise.

Anam Zakaria

· Aug 14, 2017 · 06:30 am

Days of longing: Social media ban disconnects Kashmiri families divided by the LoC

Facebook, WhatsApp, Skype offered the only means of staying in touch for families divided by the conflict between India and Pakistan.

Anam Zakaria

· May 01, 2017 · 06:30 am

From India to America, countries are adopting Pakistan's model of mixing religion with politics

The distinction between anti-national and anti-religion is increasingly blurred.

Anam Zakaria

· Apr 15, 2017 · 08:00 am

By marking Genocide Day, Bangladesh seeks to remember what Pakistan wants to forget

March 25, the day before Bangladesh's Independence Day, will commemorate the genocide during the 1971 liberation war.

Anam Zakaria

· Mar 25, 2017 · 08:00 am

‘I was sick of suitable girls and wanted to create an anti-heroine': Pakistani writer Sabyn Javeri

Everyone’s talking about her first novel ‘Nobody Killed Her’. Here, so is she.

Anam Zakaria

· Mar 21, 2017 · 08:30 am