It’s tough being a political cartoonist in Pakistan. In some schools of Islam, the artistic portrayal of people and animals is perceived as sacrilegious and Pakistan’s extremist politics is spawning a new wave of restrictions on the production of visual arts. Sabir Nazar is a Pakistani cartoonist who is trying to reclaim the power of images and restore the role of cartoons as a way to convey messages across cultural and linguistic divides.It’s tough being a political cartoonist in Pakistan. In some schools of Islam, the artistic portrayal of people and animals is perceived as sacrilegious and Pakistan’s extremist politics is spawning a new wave of restrictions on the production of visual arts. Sabir Nazar is a Pakistani cartoonist who is trying to reclaim the power of images and restore the role of cartoons as a way to convey messages across cultural and linguistic divides.
Questions about the covert U.S. mission in Abbottabad, Pakistan are leading to new found frustrations in the already rocky relationship between the two countries. We talk with Hassan Abbas, professor at Columbia and former Pakistani government official.