“There is no human activity from which every form of intellectual participation can be excluded: Each man carries on some form of intellectual activity, that is, he is a philosopher, an artist, a man of taste, he participates in a particular conception of the world, has a conscious line of moral conduct, and therefore contributes to sustain a conception of the world or to modify it, that is, to bring into being new modes of thought” — Antonio Gramsci

CRITICAL minds have never found space to thrive in Pakistan. For most of our history, they have been at best isolated, and at worst criminalised. Today, we are again confronted with an all-out attack on intellectual life. Junaid Hafeez, a gifted young university teacher, has been in jail, mostly in solitary confinement, for 17 years. No judge is willing to hear his case — filed after he was accused of blasphemy — no matter the actual evidence. No government since 2009 has had the spine to pardon him, despite the falsehoods invoked to frame him.

When Mashal Khan, another precocious young talent, was lynched on a university campus in Mardan after being falsely accused of blasphemy nine years ago, we were told something would give. Some argue that the apparent clampdown on the TLP is........

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