Particle Politics

Pervez Hoodbhoy

Dr Hoodbhoy’s column on Chowk revolves around issues of nuclear disarmament and scientific education in the sub-continent of India and Pakistan. His analysis focuses on the real issues and he cuts to the core of the political brouhaha around social development issues.

Column Articles

Where Billions Vanish Apr 21, 2008

The Musharraf years are over. It is now time for parliament to carry out a public inquiry into the irresponsible and crazy policies that have hitherto been the hall-mark of decision-making.

Pakistan: The War of Drones Mar 10, 2008

Why do so many Pakistanis suddenly lose their voice when it comes to condemning suicide bombings? Is it because the bomber kills in the name of Islam?

Pakistan's Universities - Problems and Solutions Jan 27, 2008

300% jump in research publications, nine new engineering universities with European faculty, 3000 Pakistani students sent overseas for higher-degrees...self-serving lies, half-truths and deceit.

The Power of Ideas and the Modern University Sep 11, 2007

Ideas rule the world, drive our actions, inform our beliefs, and unleash mighty revolutions. How must Pakistanâ€™s higher education system change for it to succeed?

Jinnah and the Islamic State â€“ Setting the Record Straight Aug 13, 2007

What did Quaid-e-Azam Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, want for the country he was destined to create in 1947?

Science and the Islamic world --- The quest for rapprochement Aug 2, 2007

With well over a billion Muslims and extensive material resources, why is the Islamic world disengaged from science and the process of creating new knowledge?

Preventing More Lal Masjids Jul 10, 2007

What should the government do after the guns stop firing and the hostages are out, whether dead or alive?

What Next After Karachi’s Carnage? May 16, 2007

Although Musharraf denies that he wants a postponement, a lengthy martial law may now be his only chance for a continuation of his dictatorial rule into its eighth year – and perhaps beyond.

Teaching Science Badly – and Well Mar 1, 2007

Dogmatism kills science. Students should therefore experience science as a process for extending understanding, not as unalterable truth. Never should the teacher say X or Y is true just because that’s what the textbook says.

Education Reform: Signs of Hope Feb 12, 2007

There is good news: the “White Paper” to “debate and finalize national education policy”, distributed in December 2006 by the Ministry of Education, though incomplete and flawed, is an enormous step forward.

Re-Imagining Pakistan Dec 13, 2006

Commencement lecture by Pervez Hoodbhoy at the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture, Karachi, 9 December 2006.

Musharraf’s Coup - Seven Years Later Oct 12, 2006

Some had feared – while others had hoped – that General Pervez Musharraf’s coup of October 12, 1999, would bring the revolution of Kemal Ataturk to a Pakistan firmly in the iron grip of mullahs.

Waiting for Enlightenment Jul 23, 2006

After almost five years of ‘enlightened moderation,’ it seems there is more continuity than change. And, with each passing day, it becomes harder to see how such a policy can hope to stem the tide of religious radicalism that is overwhelming P

What Pakistan’s Bomb Could Not Buy May 29, 2006

Nuclear racing and doctrines is everywhere and always driven by the same implacable, mad, runaway logic. Should there be the slightest danger of the race slackening, a nuclear “expert” will point to the other side’s latest acquisition an

South Asia Needs a Bomb-less Deal Apr 20, 2006

One certain consequence will be more bombs on both sides of the border. The deal is widely seen in Pakistan as signaling America’s support or acquiescence, or perhaps even surrender, to India’s nuclear ambitions

Assessing Pakistani Science Feb 21, 2006

Websites of most Pakistani science and technology institutions are national embarrassments; the Centre for Applied and Molecular Biology has pictures of political personalities, starting with Gen. Musharraf, but links to its activities lead nowhere

No Burial for Balakot Oct 13, 2005

Four days later, they are still not even trying to extricate the dead in the town of Balakot, flattened on the morning of October 8.

Bin Laden And Hiroshima Aug 6, 2005

Even as the United States dusted off its hands and moved on, elsewhere the radioactive rubble of the dead cities spawned not only a sense of dread, but also an obsessive desire for nuclear weapons.

Reforms! What Reforms? Jul 8, 2005

Pervez Hoodbhoy, a leading thinker and educationist in Pakistan is the latest target for the mindless policy makers running Pakistan. It shouldn’t come as a surprise, the same people, after all, have tried to stifle the voices of many others –

India Through Pakistani Eyes Feb 16, 2005

Is India now set to become a science juggernaut, a leader of the coming 'Asian Century'? A nascent superpower of the East?

Reforming Pakistan’s Universities -- II Jan 4, 2005

Three years ago the first serious effort to deal with Pakistan’s chronically ill universities was finally initiated. Unfortunately, this effort by the Higher Education Commission has now become mired in an intense, growing controversy.

Reforming Pakistan’s Universties -- I Jan 4, 2005

In this article I will look at the problems in our higher education system and why the HEC reforms are set to make a bad situation worse rather than better.

Can Pakistan Work? Oct 19, 2004

According to a popular but rather humorless Pakistani joke, “all countries have armies, but here, an army has a country.”

Pakistan: Inside The Nuclear Closet Mar 7, 2004

Many in the Pakistani press had warned that any attempt to punish Qadeer, advertised for near two decades as the architect of Pakistan’s and the Islamic world’s nuclear bomb, would provoke rampaging mobs to demand an end to Musharraf’s p

The Nuclear Noose Around Pakistan’s Neck Feb 2, 2004

Thirty years ago, fearful of India’s newly acquired nuclear weapons, Pakistan set out on its own quest to become a nuclear weapons state...Few could have imagined then that the move from buyer to seller of the world’s deadliest technology w

Rethinking Plebiscite In Kashmir Dec 25, 2003

By declaring that 'we have left aside' the United Nation Security Council resolutions for a solution to Kashmir, General Pervez Musharraf shattered a long-held taboo.

Terror in Okara May 23, 2003

Pakistan cannot bear the shock of nearly a million of its own people being dispossessed

Is It A War On Islam? Jan 16, 2003

What, then, should be the strategy for all those who believe in a just world and are appalled by America's war on the weak?

What I Saw In Okara Sep 15, 2002

An investigation into the Okara land dispute

How Not to Reform Universities Jul 9, 2002

By a stroke of some bureaucrat’s pen, the ’University of Malakand’ has now been deemed to exist

Lighting The Nuclear Fire May 25, 2002

nuclear affairs are now being guided by wishful, delusional, thinking

The Wages of Obedience Feb 12, 2002

The systemic failure of a whole class of people to think honestly and seriously, in short a failure to do their job as political analysts

Refusing the Sitara-I-Imtiaz Apr 25, 2001

...look at our generals – they get a shovel-full of impressive medals each year that they proudly wear on their chests. But tell me how many wars have they won?

Refusing The Sitara-I-Imtiaz Apr 23, 2001

our national awards have come to be associated with political maneuverings and manipulations

Our Blind Nuclear Prophets Mar 3, 2001

why did Indian and Pakistani defence budgets go up, rather than down, after the May 1998 tests?

IT Is Not A Magic Wand Jan 30, 2001

Pakistan yearns for a magic lamp

Defending the Indefensible Jan 7, 2001

a lazy and heartless educational bureaucracy

Education Reforms: Yet Another Sham Nov 10, 2000

In the hands of a semi-literate bureaucracy, which couldn’t care less about education

The Menace of Education Jul 9, 2000

We cannot entrust the future of our country to those who cannot write a single straight sentence

Eqbal Ahmad: Post - Pokhran Days May 12, 2000

The mountain had turned white. I wondered how much pain had been felt by nature ...

What are they Teaching in Pakistani Schools Today? Apr 15, 2000

How Pakistan has been educating its young?

Pakistan in the Year 3000 Jan 12, 2000

Apes and Dumbos dont have much of a future on planet Earth

Men of the Millenium Dec 28, 1999

Five personalities who shaped the last 1000 years

Dear Chowk Readers Oct 31, 1999

A call for action from Pervez Hoodbhoy to the Chowk community for Science education in Pakistan

Why An Interim Civilian Government will Fail Oct 14, 1999

Putting up a front government will achieve simply nothing

A Recipe For Unbridled Pak-India Competition Oct 11, 1999

Independent thinking on foreign and defence policies has virtually ceased to exist

Pokhran-Chaghi audit: Winners and losers Jun 4, 1999

India and Pakistan conducted their nuclear tests one year ago.

Eqbal Ahmed - As I Knew Him May 27, 1999

I had not heard of Eqbal Ahmad until I heard him speak in 1971 at an anti-war demonstration at MIT

Bombs, Missiles and Pakistani Science May 4, 1999

The Chaghi tests, and more recent Ghauri-II and Shaheen-I missile launches, have been deemed heroic symbols of high scientific achievement... Are they?

Why The War On Ghosts Was Lost Mar 8, 1999

The scourge will be eradicated from its roots, thundered Mr. Shahbaz Sharif

Is Accidental Nuclear War Impossible? Dec 8, 1998

...the truth is that accidents, sabotage, and tragedy have frequently haunted our two countries.

Living with the Bomb Jun 3, 1998

A 2-5 minute flight time, almost zero chances of interception, and the impossibility of recall

Say No to Indian and Pakistani Bombs May 18, 1998

...against the ideologies of hate created and promoted by our governments

The Rape of Khairpur University Apr 13, 1998

Why have we collectively lost the will to protest crimes against people and institutions?

Salam, Science and Secularism Jan 11, 1998

...I have chosen to talk not about Salam’s brilliant successes but, instead, his most spectacular failure ...

Why didn’t the Scientific Revolution happen in Islam? Dec 23, 1997

Every great civilization writes its own history, selectively extracts data from the past, and then proves to its satisfaction that its greatness has no peer or rival.

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