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.
Subscribers to the print edition can log in to view the entire article. For information about subscribing to the London Review of Books click here. This article is available for purchase online. Buy this article.
Tariq Ali’s The Duel: Pakistan on the Flight Path of American Power will be published next year.
Other articles by this contributor:
Bitter Chill of Winter · Kashmir
Mullahs and Heretics · A Secular History of Islam
The General in his Labyrinth · Pakistan, Afghanistan and the US
Daughter of the West · the Bhuttos
In Princes’ Pockets · Saudi Oil
Pakistan at Sixty · The Trouble with Pakistan