In this episode, Uzair talks to Dr. Ilhan Niaz about what is going on in Pakistan today and what we can learn from history to understand the present and what may come in the future. We also talked about why the political class is morally bankrupt, how the judiciary has ceded space, and why the military has been able to reassert itself in the country’s political economy.

Dr. Niaz is chair of the history department at the Quaid-e-Azam University and author of several books, including The State During the British Raj: Imperial Governance in South Asia, 1700-1947.

Chapters:

0:00 Introduction

0:55 Understanding the present

8:10 How the military draws power

16:26 The supreme court’s role today

27:15 Maintaining unity among civilians

32:15 Has Khan awakened the masses?

40:37 Scenarios for the future

46:05 The role of geopolitical rents

50:54 Is Shehbaz the worst PM in history?