Do we need secularism?
Secularism is an old song that keeps reverberating in the liberal, enlightened, progressive, leftist, and socialist circles of Pakistan. Earlier this January news from Bangladeshthat its supreme court banned use of religion by political parties provided a fresh impetus to the choir. Since then a plethora of op-ed appreciating and envying this progressive step of Bangladesh continues appearing in the newspapers. They all regret Pakistan’s lagging behind in this important improvement. In Pakistan, secularists have always been understood to mean something that is, harshly to mildly, against religion. However, their position is quite different: they hold that the state ought