Yasser Latif Hamdani

Atlanta, Lahore

Author/Lawyer BRC Lincoln’s Inn 24-28. Rutgers grad 2002, Asia Society fellow 2013-14, Harvard Law fellow 2018, columnist @ThePrintIndia, @DailyTimesPak, @tft_

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Articles

Are Pakistanis Really More Moderate Than Indians

3 days ago | thefridaytimes.com | Yasser Latif Hamdani

Pakistanis often argue that, unlike India, Pakistan has never elected someone like Modi. Let us consider this coolly, calmly, and honestly, now that the war is over. Is Modi really worse than those who rule us? Under Modi’s right-wing Hindu nationalist government, Muslims are still free to practice, profess, and propagate their faith openly and without hindrance in all of India. Modi has not been going around forcing anyone to sign affidavits undertaking not to carry out Qurbani or pray Eid namaz.
Jinnah, Congress, And The Truth About India's Partition

2 months ago | thefridaytimes.com | Yasser Latif Hamdani

Indian historian Anil Seal, widely hailed as the founder of the Cambridge School of Indian history, recently stated what is now an obvious but deeply inconvenient fact of history: partition of India was the doing of the Congress high command and not Jinnah. From Maulana Azad to H M Seervai, all astute observers of the political events of the closing decade of the British Raj have affirmed this fact and there is very little to argue against it.
Coexistence Of Hindus And Muslims. What Did The Muslim League Actually Say?

Nov 1, 2024 | thefridaytimes.com | Yasser Latif Hamdani

Critics of the idea of Pakistan, and in particular the Two-Nation Theory, say that the All India Muslim League postulated that Hindus and Muslims cannot live together. Unfortunately, this faux narrative has also become part of the official ideology of Pakistan. It is therefore important to revisit the primary source documents to see whether the Muslim League or its standard bearers actually said that Hindus and Muslims could not coexist.
Qazi Faez Isa And Islam - Part II

Oct 18, 2024 | thefridaytimes.com | Yasser Latif Hamdani

Read the first part of 'Qazi Faez Isa And Islam' here. When Qazi Faez Isa became the Chief Justice of Pakistan, I wrote a piece here in which I stated the following: “Justice Isa is a sincerely religious man, and that shows in his judicial pronouncements and obiter dicta, which are often peppered with religious wisdom. He is not a reactionary by any means.
What Jinnah Really Said About A Federal Constitutional Court

Oct 16, 2024 | thefridaytimes.com | Yasser Latif Hamdani

A few days ago the chief of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP), Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, posted on the social media site 'X' (formerly known as Twitter) that Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah had spoken of a Federal Court that would be separate from the Supreme Court. Bilawal's reference was to lend credence to the under-deliberation legislation which would amend the Constitution to create a Federal Constitutional Court.
From 295-A To 295-C: The Evolution Of Pakistan's Blasphemy Laws

Oct 8, 2024 | thefridaytimes.com | Yasser Latif Hamdani

In the early 20th century, Punjab had been the hotbed of 'pamphlet wars' between Hindus and Muslims. Things took a drastic turn with the publication of a pamphlet called Rangila Rasul by a publisher, Mahashe Rajpal, in Lahore in 1924. This was a scurrilous publication which attacked the personal life of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).
Revisiting Faisal Devji's 'Muslim Zion'

Oct 3, 2024 | thefridaytimes.com | Yasser Latif Hamdani

I read with interest Professor Faisal Devji's response here to a review in Dawn of his classic Muslim Zion. When it came out ten years ago, I was among the first to respond with a knee-jerk in one of the articles I wrote on it. After all, calling Mr Jinnah "satanic" and "Devilish", and equating the Muslim nationalism that led to the creation of Pakistan to Zionism was, on first impression, unacceptable to any Pakistani worth his or her salt.
Jinnah In Bangladesh

Sep 19, 2024 | thefridaytimes.com | Yasser Latif Hamdani

Much has been written about the commemoration of Mr Jinnah's death anniversary in Bangladesh on September 11 this year.
50 Years On: Revisiting The Second Amendment

Sep 7, 2024 | thefridaytimes.com | Yasser Latif Hamdani

Today marks 50 years of a continuing crime against humanity that Pakistan’s unthinking Parliament unleashed on an already divided population. It is a crime against humanity because it has set the stage for persecution that is unparalleled in the world today. It has also created almost insoluble problems for the state of Pakistan as far as the idea of citizenship is concerned.
The Supreme Court's Capitulation

Aug 23, 2024 | thefridaytimes.com | Yasser Latif Hamdani

“If we are going to allow ourselves to be influenced by the public opinion that can be created in the name of religion when we know that religion has nothing to do with the matter, I think we must have the courage to say, ‘No, we are not going to be frightened by that’,” suggested Mohammad Ali Jinnah.