Pakistan: Reframing the Debate

Radio ReOrient

This episode features the second part of a series on the Political Struggle in Pakistan. Professor Salman Sayyid, Dr. Sher Ali Tareen and Dr. Shehla Khan critically explore liberalism, populism and secularism. Focusing on how these concepts are key to understanding the deep crisis engulfing Pakistan, but are often construed in simplistic binaries rooted in orientalism that impoverish the debate, and impede the search for a resolution. In contrast, the podcast seeks to shift the debate to a post-orientalist terrain as well as one that resists the allure of methodological nationalism, and resonates with ummatic struggles more broadly. The immediate context of the discussion remains Pakistan’s subjection to a de facto military dictatorship that is waging war on its people in its bid to crush former PM Imran Khan and his party, the Pakistan Tehreek e Insaaf (PTI) as symbols of a more just, equitable, and less westoxicated political order.