Mr Burki is correct in saying that Ignatieff is “highly respected”. But he is neither an American nor a journalist.
LAHORE: In his thought-provoking article published on April 13 (“Pakistan’s political leaders as heroes”), Shahid Javed Burki quotes extensively from an article by Michael Ignatieff. He describes Ignatieff as a “highly respected American journalist”. Mr Burki is correct in saying that Ignatieff is “highly respected”. That he is. But he is neither an American nor a journalist.
In fact, Ignatieff is a distinguished Canadian scholar who graduated from the University of Toronto and gained a doctorate in history from Harvard. He has held academic positions in the UK, France, the US and also Canada. He went on to lead a major political party in Canada. He is, in scholarly circles, perhaps best remembered for his definitive biography of one of the most outstanding political philosophers of the 20th century: Isaiah Berlin. The biography focuses on Berlin’s inner conflicts during a long life (1909-1997), which culminated in his focus on the history of ideas and on 19th century Russian thought.
Mueen Afzal
Published in The Express Tribune, April 14th, 2015.
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