In this gripping NWH podcast, host Ali Warsi sits down with renowned historian Dr. Tahir Kamran to untangle Pakistan’s turbulent political evolution, from the rise of religious movements like TLP to the hidden hands shaping street agitation, sectarian politics, and state power.

Drawing on his groundbreaking 2024 book Chequered Past, Uncertain Future, Dr. Kamran exposes how Pakistan’s political culture has been engineered, manipulated, and repeatedly diverted from its organic roots.

This conversation reveals the uncomfortable truths behind mob politics, the weaponization of religion, and the deep structures that have shaped Pakistan’s modern history.

Chapters:

1:00 Views on TLP phenomenon, mob violence in Pakistan

7:56 Muridke incident, Saad Rizvi, Transformation of Deobandis, Swat-e-Azam, Sectarian Groups

14:22 Jamat-e-Islami, Mob Lynching, Middle Class of Pakistan, Muhammad Ali Mirza, Intellectual Base in a Post Truth World

18:01 Exploitation of Religion in Pakistani Politics

20:00 Were the religious political forces that pressured the Pakistan People’s Party in 1974 truly organic, or were they shaped by other influences?

35:10 Given Pakistan’s deeply entrenched state structures, which you describe as nearly impossible to circumvent, and considering the history of political assassinations, judicial executions, and forced exiles from Zulfikar Ali Bhutto to Benazir Bhutto and even Nawaz Sharif, do you think major political parties have now concluded that rebellion against the system is ultimately pointless?

44:10 Are you hopeful about Imran Khan?

49:00 Can Imran Khan and Ayatollah Khomeini be compared? Are they similar?

56:02 As a historian and an educationist, how do you think education can help the youth navigate existing power structures, especially when many young people today seem either disinterested in politics or unsure of how to negotiate their problems without falling into the politics of agitation or aggression?

Pakistan’s Political Manipulation EXPOSED | Dr Tahir Kamran

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