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Farrukh Khan Pitafi

Farrukh Khan Pitafi

The Express Tribune

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In praise of elections

There is something fascinating about the electoral process that has always excited this scribe. If democracy is a fairytale (most likely the Brothers...

13.04.2024 40

The Express Tribune

Farrukh Khan Pitafi

Electoral Mahabharata

Despite your valiant efforts to stay clear of the subject, Indian elections, being the world’s biggest exercise in procedural democracy, have the...

06.04.2024 10

The Express Tribune

Farrukh Khan Pitafi

Power and its discontent

Netflix’s rendition of Cixin Liu’s brilliant work, 3 Body Problem, just dropped. It is as good as it gets. If you haven’t read the novel, I...

30.03.2024 60

The Express Tribune

Farrukh Khan Pitafi

Unbearable lightness of being

Diwaar kya giri meray khasta makan ki Logon ne mere sehn mein rastay bana liye (The wall of my ruined house barely crumbled And people made...

23.03.2024 20

The Express Tribune

Farrukh Khan Pitafi

Fear of the unknown

In Denis E Taylor’s sci-fi trilogy, which is now known as the Bobiverse, a von Neumann probe, or self-replicating spacecraft, escapes a devastating...

16.03.2024 20

The Express Tribune

Farrukh Khan Pitafi

Should Biden drop out of the race?

The US Supreme Court has unanimously ruled that the state of Colorado (or for that matter any state) cannot disqualify Donald Trump (or any federal...

09.03.2024 20

The Express Tribune

Farrukh Khan Pitafi

Populism’s fanatic flaw

On the face of it, it was a simple question. Why do fanatics usually lose in the end? I was reading a history book, and it had not escaped my...

02.03.2024 9

The Express Tribune

Farrukh Khan Pitafi

Populism’s fanatic law

On the face of it, it was a simple question. Why do fanatics usually lose in the end? I was reading a history book, and it had not escaped my...

02.03.2024 6

The Express Tribune

Farrukh Khan Pitafi

Populism’s fanatic f law

On the face of it, it was a simple question. Why do fanatics usually lose in the end? I was reading a history book, and it had not escaped my...

02.03.2024 10

The Express Tribune

Farrukh Khan Pitafi

Lessons from a lost decade

P akistan has produced many lost decades. It is difficult for a country like Pakistan not to look back and be seized by a boundless sense of loss. But...

24.02.2024 60

The Express Tribune

Farrukh Khan Pitafi

Akhand Bharat

T imes of India , January 24, 2024: “Madhya Pradesh chief minister Mohan Yadav finds himself in the news owing to a contentious comment on...

17.02.2024 30

The Express Tribune

Farrukh Khan Pitafi

Structural imbalances

W hile pundits and media obsess about the politics of the immediate, let us take a deep dive into the world of structural misconfigurations that badly...

10.02.2024 10

The Express Tribune

Farrukh Khan Pitafi

Burden of choice

D o small decisions have far-reaching effects? Dr Frasier Crane insists they do in an episode of the sitcom named after him (Episode 13 titled ...

03.02.2024 30

The Express Tribune

Farrukh Khan Pitafi

What next — a directional query

W ith the elections rapidly approaching all political elements double down on their narratives. If you want to look like a victim, you find ways to...

27.01.2024 20

The Express Tribune

Farrukh Khan Pitafi

Sanity in the age of hate and conflict

T his piece could have very easily been about the recent Iran-Pakistan diplomatic spat. But mercifully, it is not. There are two reasons. One, it is...

20.01.2024 30

The Express Tribune

Farrukh Khan Pitafi

Truth or dare?

T he news that Elon Musk had named platform X’s AI companion ‘Grok’ came as a surprise. The name comes from Robert A Heinlein’s 1961 novel ...

13.01.2024 40

The Express Tribune

Farrukh Khan Pitafi

AI wars begin

W hen you are obsessing about petty domestic disputes and mundane minutiae of existence you forget to pay attention to the world-changing events...

06.01.2024 100

The Express Tribune

Farrukh Khan Pitafi

Nice is good

I t is customary to write a summary of an entire year’s major events in its final days. I have been doing this invariably for the past twenty-five...

30.12.2023 40

The Express Tribune

Farrukh Khan Pitafi

Sea blindness and its cure

I magine setting out to settle on a distant planet with a large crew and realising as you land there after a long, arduous journey that you have made...

23.12.2023 20

The Express Tribune

Farrukh Khan Pitafi

Blood of our children

U ntil I sat down to write this piece, I thought I would write something about the country’s maritime security and interests, mainly because I just...

16.12.2023 30

The Express Tribune

Farrukh Khan Pitafi

Pakistan’s political twister

I have not seen the original, but the 2000 Brendan Fraser and Elizabeth Hurley starrer remake of the film Bedazzled is nothing short of a treat....

09.12.2023 40

The Express Tribune

Farrukh Khan Pitafi

Using difficulty

A fter appearing in 160 movies and winning countless prizes, including two Oscars, 90-year-old Sir Michael Caine announced this year that he is...

02.12.2023 20

The Express Tribune

Farrukh Khan Pitafi

Merchants of violence

O n the eve of Thanksgiving in America, a car travelling from the US to Canada sped up at the border crossing and exploded. While other media groups...

25.11.2023 50

The Express Tribune

Farrukh Khan Pitafi

Crazy messed-up world

Countless books have been written about this ape-descended life form that just refuses to take a hint. Kingdom Animalia, phylum Chordata, class...

18.11.2023 30

The Express Tribune

Farrukh Khan Pitafi

Prejudice, paranoia and humanity

Hurt people hurt people. Sitcoms often embed such profound statements in their deep conversations. But by the time the part of your brain that deals...

11.11.2023 40

The Express Tribune

Farrukh Khan Pitafi

Anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and expediency

Rachel Maddow’s new book Prequel: An American Fight Against Fascism is a gripping tale of Nazi machinations in America in the lead-up to and during...

04.11.2023 40

The Express Tribune

Farrukh Khan Pitafi

Revolution at Noon?

Privilege is its own reward. Isn’t it? Or is it a prison, a panopticon, which makes it impossible for you to escape? This takes me back to one...

28.10.2023 30

The Express Tribune

Farrukh Khan Pitafi

Decay in political societies

The election season in the US is about to begin. In our region, too, it has kinda sorta started. India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka all seem...

21.10.2023 50

The Express Tribune

Farrukh Khan Pitafi

Fifty shades of stuck

There are several analogies to describe our current state of affairs. Caught in a tractor beam and trapped in a gravity well. But one fits like a...

14.10.2023 50

The Express Tribune

Farrukh Khan Pitafi

Subversion of the Pakistani mind

An old interview of a KGB defector, Yuri Bezmenov, has found its way back into the US discourse. Given to G Edward Griffin in 1984, this interview...

07.10.2023 70

The Express Tribune

Farrukh Khan Pitafi

Just hope

“W hich door would you choose? Blue — go to 15 years into the future with $50 million. Red — start your life anew at the age of 10 with all the...

23.09.2023 20

The Express Tribune

Farrukh Khan Pitafi

What we do by default

Taika Waititi is a genius. I accidentally stumbled upon his Jojo Rabbit. And since then, every time he is involved in a project, I find myself...

16.09.2023 40

The Express Tribune

Farrukh Khan Pitafi

What tipping point?

Pakistani pundits have found a new pastime. Hardly a day passes without one of them announcing that the country is fast approaching a point of no...

09.09.2023 40

The Express Tribune

Farrukh Khan Pitafi

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