The malaise of names and titles (II)

Letter May 09, 2012
Perhaps, in some ways the institution that you may have passed through does matter.

ISLAMABAD: I had a hard time convincing an editor that his invitation to me to write for his newspaper should not be based on what I had been in my professional life, but rather on the quality of arguments I made in my articles. However, very soon the editor wanted me to pass my contributions through a ‘qualification’ check.

From the readers’ perspective, too, the comments by most of the usual suspects on The Express Tribune website are also linked to the background of the writer, rather than the content of his/her article. I once did an exercise where the points that I wished to make on a particular subject were fed to another contributing colleague under whose name the material appeared.

The remarks and comments on the article were as if for a Socrates. Perhaps, in some ways the institution that you may have passed through does matter.

Shahzad Chaudhry

Published in The Express Tribune, May 10th, 2012.