There Are Different Shah Latifs, It Depends Whom You Are Looking For: Nadeem F Paracha

Renowned columnist and author Nadeem F Paracha has claimed that Pakistan would see the era of new social movements and the state would never be able to engage with it in a myopic. Paracha also claimed that there were complex economic and political drivers behind them.

 He was also of the opinion that this era was not funded by enemies but they could become bandwagons for varied opportunists. In a tweet Paracha claimed:

"Era of the new social movements has arrived in Pak. The state will never be able to engage with it in a myopic, binary manner. There are complex economic & political drivers behind them. They are not ‘funded’ by ‘enemies.’ But they CAN become bandwagons for varied opportunists."

However, Paracha also defined great Sindhi poet on twitter as it depended which Shah Latif you were looking for! One who was made by the state, other who was made by Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto or another that was made by Sindhi nationalists, However, there are other Shah Latifs as well one constructed by TLP and other imagined by Coke Studio?

He was answering to a tweet of an author Mehr F Hussain, who in a tweet asked:

"I'm looking for books about/by Shah Abdul Latif. Any guidance would be appreciated. Also 8ve decided, I want to learn Sindhi. I've pretty much got seraiki, Punjabi, Urdu, English covered. And partly, jhangochi too."

To this Paracha tweeted:

"Depends which Shah Latif you’re looking for: The one constructed by the state; one constructed by the ZA Bhutto regime; one constructed by Sindhi nationalists; one constructed by TLP types; or the one imagined by Coke Studio? Same is true for all major South Asian Sufi saints."

Nadeem F Paracha is  is a journalist, author and cultural critic. He writes a column in the Dawn newspaper under the title Smokers' Corner. He is the author of four books The Pakistan Anti-Hero, End of past: An immediate eyewitness history of a troubled nation, Points of Entry and Muslim Modernism: A Case For Naya Pakistan.