Diary 
Tariq Ali
May and June are the worst months to visit Pakistan: temperatures in Lahore can go up to 120°F, and I still remember the melting tar on the road, which virtually doubled the time it took to bike home from school. I had been invited, however, to give the Eqbal Ahmed Memorial Lectures in Lahore, Islamabad and Karachi. Ahmed – whose dream of setting up a serious postgraduate university in Pakistan remains unfulfilled – died in May 1999.
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Tariq Ali’s latest book, Protocols of the Elders of Sodom and Other Essays, will be published by Verso this summer.
Other articles by this contributor:
Mullahs and Heretics · A Secular History of Islam
Pakistan at Sixty · The Trouble with Pakistan
The General in his Labyrinth · Pakistan, Afghanistan and the US
Diary · Murder in the Family
Bitter Chill of Winter · Kashmir
In Princes’ Pockets · Saudi Oil
Daughter of the West · the Bhuttos
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