Ahmad Maudood Ausaf

Lahore, London

Columnist at Freelance

Lawyer & columnist. Writing on law, society, and governance @dawn_com. Views mine.

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Articles

Judicial surrender

3 weeks ago | dawn.com | Ahmad Maudood Ausaf

“THE facility of suo motu may no longer be available,” remarked Justice Amin-ud-Din Khan. It was a quiet comment, dropped not with alarm but with the composure of someone watching an era slip gently away. But there is little quiet about what it truly signals: not procedural modesty, not democratic maturity, but a cold and deliberate retreat. A judiciary once imagined as the final sentinel of rights now appears content to fold its robes, clasp its hands, and wait.
Guardians no more

Feb 26, 2025 | dawn.com | Ahmad Maudood Ausaf |Tariq Khosa

WHILE lawyers occupy centre stage in op-ed sections and appear on late-night TV shows dissecting the legalese of politically motivated verdicts and constitutional amendments, they have — ironically and perhaps even meekly — overlooked a fundamental transformation within their own ranks: the rapid and incendiary polarisation of bar politics. Over the weekend, the Lahore High Court Bar Association conducted its elections drawing lawyers from all across Punjab to cast their votes.
What does the Council of Islamic Ideology have to do with VPNs anyway?

Nov 27, 2024 | dawn.com | Ahmad Maudood Ausaf

Before the ink had dried on public reaction, the council’s chairman, Allama Raghib Naeemi, was quick to retract his statement, citing a clerical error. Well, to look at it from a purely syntactic standpoint, unless the error lay in the prefix “un” and they intended to hail VPNs as virtuous, the retraction serves no purpose other than bewilderment.
NON-FICTION: HUBRIS AND MISCALCULATION

Oct 13, 2024 | dawn.com | Steve Coll |Ahmad Faruqui |Abbas Nasir |Ahmad Maudood Ausaf

The Achilles TrapBy Steve CollPenguinISBN: 978-0525562269576pp. The United States invaded Iraq in March 2003. In The Achilles Trap, Steve Coll, a professor of journalism at Columbia University and the author of nine books, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning Ghost Wars, provides a behind-the-scenes look at the decisions that led to the war.
NON-FICTION: A GLORIFIED HISTORY OF SINDH

Oct 13, 2024 | dawn.com | Soonha Abro |Abbas Nasir |Ahmad Maudood Ausaf |Muhammad Amir Rana

Sindhis in a Global Context: Past, Present, Future, and Origins (2600 BCE to…)By Dr Maqbool A. HalepotaHalo Publishing International, Texas, USAISBN 978-1-63765-584-9444pp. Dr Maqbool A. Halepota’s Sindhis in a Global Context: Past, Present, Future, and Origins (2600 BCE to…) is an ambitious project that attempts to chronicle the rich history of Sindh from 2600 BCE up to present times.
BOOK DESIGN: A BOOK BY ITS COVER

Oct 13, 2024 | dawn.com | Jenny Grigg |Abbas Nasir |Ahmad Maudood Ausaf |Muhammad Amir Rana

Primary school students have been reading TikTok sensation Icebreaker, an enemies-to-lovers romance about a figure skater and an ice-hockey player. The cartoon cover features a ponytailed girl (who looks to be in her tweens) in a sparkly purple costume, smiling up at a much taller boy holding a hockey stick. But the content is “very, very explicit”, an unsuspecting parent, who gave the book to her 10-year-old stepdaughter, told the Age.
COLUMN: THE FIRE OF LUCKNOW

Oct 13, 2024 | dawn.com | Harris Khalique |Abbas Nasir |Ahmad Maudood Ausaf |Muhammad Amir Rana

Out of the three principal centres of Indo-Persian civilisation that evolved from a fusion of multiple Vedic and Arabo-Persian cultures over centuries, Delhi and Lahore continue to be celebrated, while Lucknow is both celebrated and mourned. During the last millennium, all these cities enjoyed their share of primacy, glory, splendour and opulence, but also experienced bloodletting, conquests, loot and plunder.
Dear politicians, our house is on fire

Oct 11, 2024 | dawn.com | Ahmad Maudood Ausaf

For the past several weeks, Islamabad has been on edge. Not that it’s been all peace and love for much of Pakistan’s existence. The past few weeks, however, have been particularly manic — characterised by road and internet blockages, bans on rights outfits, skirmishes between law enforcers and protesters as government officials of one province marched on the federal capital, and the odd attempts by the federal government to put up a facade of normalcy amid visits by foreign dignitaries.
The West and Israel: Spectres on the Truman Show?

Oct 8, 2024 | htsyndication.com | Ahmad Maudood Ausaf

Pakistan, Oct. 9 -- The world lives in a continuing state of deja vu. Look around yourself-western colonialism, ethnic subjugation, coloured reporting, hollow statements, and protests (while they continue to be trendy). But what is almost wholly amusing is how the current world stage has turned out to be a tawdry production of the 1998 Hollywood classic: The Truman Show. The stage is set. The main protagonist is on the stage.
The West and Israel: Spectres on the Truman Show?

Oct 8, 2024 | dailytimes.com.pk | Ahmad Maudood Ausaf

The world lives in a continuing state of déjà vu. Look around yourself-western colonialism, ethnic subjugation, coloured reporting, hollow statements, and protests (while they continue to be trendy). But what is almost wholly amusing is how the current world stage has turned out to be a tawdry production of the 1998 Hollywood classic: The Truman Show. The stage is set. The main protagonist is on the stage.