How to Pakistan

Political pollster and researcher Azeema Cheema returns to the podcast, and Dr Ali Cheema, joins for the first time.

Dr Cheema is Associate Professor of Economics and the Head of the Economics Department. He is a former Rhodes Scholar and a PhD from Cambridge University.

Both Azeema and Ali have worked on political opinion polls and surveys for the last several years, with Ali's most recent work published by Herald.

https://herald.dawn.com/news/1398605

https://www.dawn.com/news/1421699

Join Fasi and Mosharraf for an in-depth conversation on the polling, what it means, and what it doesn't mean.

Spoiler: Neither Azeema nor Ali could be goaded into making any predictions!

Join us for a conversation with Omar Waraich. Waraich has covered Pakistan for TIME Magazine and The Independent. He has reported from South Asia, Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. He has also written for The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, Slate, Sports Illustrated, The Caravan, Al-Jazeera America, Roads & Kingdoms, The Guardian, The New Statesman and The Economist Intelligence Unit.

Another devastating weekend. Fasi and Mosharraf try to talk about Mastung. A place where terrorists murdered over 200 Pakistanis. A place far, far away. How can we make such places closer to us? How can we be closer to places like Mastung?

In an increasingly fractured public discourse with extreme positions, deep injury, legitimate grievances, and excessive emotions defining the competing political narratives, it is hard to have reasoned and sincere conversation.

We initiated this podcast to have exactly these conversations. Thank you for taking this journey with us. Don't give up on each other. Don't give up on us. Don't give up on you. This is How to Pakistan.

Fasi and Mosharraf speak to Adil Najam, Dean of the Pardee School at Boston University, former Vice Chancellor of Lahore University for Management Sciences (LUMS). Professor Najam is a UET Lahore alum, with a PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He founded the All Things Pakistan blog, and has worked on a range of policy issues in Pakistan, including the national environmental policy framework in the 1990s, and higher education reform from 2000 to 2003.

Today we speak to Professor Najam about his latest labour of love, the UNDP National Human Development Report that he has co authored with Dr Faisal Bari on the challenges and opportunities facing Pakistani youth.

We hope you enjoy the conversation - and make sure you read the report on May 2. #PKyouth #NHDRpk

We open with Krewella - an awesome duo of sisters who are Americans of Pakistani origin. They are definitely not the Benjamin Sisters. But they are super 2018.

Fast is also super 2018, with a full Pashto language joke that is most inappropriate.

WARNING: There is at least one bad word in this podcast.

Some coverage of Krewella (which was repeatedly mispronounced by Mosharraf).

https://www.teenvogue.com/story/krewella-interview-ammunition

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/20-best-things-we-saw-at-electric-daisy-carnival-new-york-2015-20150526/best-rock-show-krewella-20150526

What will the 2018 be like? Fasi and Mosharraf discuss heavyweights and lightweights in Pashto. And they talk about Kasur and the rape and murder of Zainab.

Some of the articles mentioned in the podcast:

Valerie Khan and Chris Cork on @etribune https://tribune.com.pk/story/1608063/6-child-sex-abuse-reframing-narrative/

Xari Jalil for @dawn_com https://www.dawn.com/news/1384248

Khurram Husain for @dawn_com https://www.dawn.com/news/1385039

And Mosharraf for @thenews_intl https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/271761-the-outrage-in-kasur-and-beyond

Fasi and Mosharraf discuss whether the Faizabad dharna and its conclusion was the product of deprivation, or ideology, or conspiracy. Join us.

Fasi and Mosharraf discuss the recent engineering effort in Karachi and how it matches, or does not match the efforts and phenomenon across the rest of the country.

We also debut Danish Ali's brilliant new Agent Lover to open and close the podcast!

Fasi and Mosharraf discuss the coming together of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement - Pakistan and the Pakistan Tehrik e Insaaf. What does it mean for politics and the political process? What does it mean for democracy? What does it mean for tabdeeli? Find out.