📚 Book Launch: Pakistan Lost by Shehzad Ghias

 📚 Book Launch: Pakistan Lost by Shehzad Ghias

Join us for a special evening as Liberty Books and Habib University present the grand launch of Pakistan Lost a powerful new book by Shehzad Ghias that’s sparking conversations about history, memory, and how nations define themselves.

📅 Date: 17th October 2025

🕕 Time: 6:00 PM – 7:30 PM

📍 Venue: Habib University, Karachi (Loc: https://shorturl.at/jFTQK)

The event will feature an engaging conversation with Shehzad Ghias, author of Pakistan Lost, moderated by Kazi Akber. Together, they’ll dive into the stories, myths, and moments that shape Pakistan’s identity and explore how revisiting the past can help us better understand the present.

This is more than a book launch, it’s an invitation to question, reflect, and engage in a broader dialogue about who we are and how we arrived here.

📖 The event is free and open to all. However, seats are limited, so please register below to confirm your spot:

Register Here

Early Life & Beginnings

Precise details about Shehzad Ghias’s childhood, date of birth, or family background are not widely documented in the public domain (he tends to maintain some privacy on personal matters). However, what is better known is how early in his life he gravitated toward theater, performance, and social engagement.
In 2009, Shehzad founded Cogito Productions, a youth-based theatre production company aimed at promoting social change through performing arts. This suggests that even before fully entering mainstream media, he was thinking about using art as a vehicle for critical reflection. In 2010, he launched Room for Improv-ment, Lahore’s first improvisational comedy troupe. Through these ventures, he not only performed but also trained others in theater and improvisation, establishing a foundation in performance-based social commentary.
As a comedian, he has toured across Pakistan and internationally, including performances in the United States, Canada, Germany, and Dubai. A notable milestone was a one-man special show at the Broadway Comedy Club in New York. These early forays into performance, theater, and youth engagement set the stage for a broader career in media and ideas.

Education

Shehzad’s formal education is quite strong and diverse, combining law, arts, and international exposure.

• He completed his BA / LLB at LUMS (Lahore University of Management Sciences) in 2012.

• After that, he earned a Master’s in Theatre from Brooklyn College, City University of New York, under a Fulbright Scholarship.

The Fulbright Scholar distinction is especially notable, as it implies international academic recognition and exposure. At Brooklyn College, his theatre training would have included performance, theory, dramaturgy, and possibly direction, giving him a deeper grounding in the art form he has used in his career. Thus, Shehzad is not just a comedian or popular commentator; he has formal qualifications in law and theatre, combining analytical training with performance and expressive skills.

Objectives and Vision

From his public statements, lectures, and creative work, several key objectives emerge in Shehzad Ghias’s intellectual and social mission. While he may not have published a single formal manifesto, one can distill his aims as follows:

1. Break the Silence & Expand Discourse
   
   
   He often criticizes how certain ideas and histories are suppressed in Pakistan, whether about identity, regionalism, civil-military relations, or minority rights. He seeks to open up space for new debates, particularly among younger generations who are less attached to established orthodoxies.

2. Challenge Narratives, Not Just Personalities
   
   
   Shehzad tends to focus less on mere personal criticism of political leaders and more on structural issues. He questions the narratives over how Pakistan was imagined, governed, and culturally understood. His approach is meant to problematize rather than to simply vilify.

3. Bridge Art & Thought
   
   
   His background in theatre and comedy is not incidental; he seems to believe that art, satire, and performance can act as potent vehicles for political critique and public education. His objective is to fuse entertainment and meaning, making difficult ideas more accessible.

4. Promote Pluralism, Federalism & Constitutionalism
   
   
   In his public commentary and now in his book, he engages with subjects like minority rights, federal structures (Lahore Resolution, provincial autonomy), and constitutional crises. He often pushes for a more inclusive, decentralized, and diverse Pakistan, where multiple identities have space. (This is more evident in Pakistan Lost, discussed below.)

5. Hold Institutions Accountable
   
   
   His critical gaze is not reserved only for politicians; he often questions the actions of the military, judiciary, and state bureaucracy. He encourages citizens to demand accountability, transparency, and reform, rather than passive acceptance of institutions as infallible.

6. Cultivate a Critical Citizenry
   
   
   Ultimately, perhaps his grand objective is cultural: to foster a public that thinks, questions, and debates rather than consumes narratives blindly. His medium comedy, podcasting, and writing try to reach people in their everyday lives, not only in academic circles.

These objectives are ambitious, and not without controversy. Some critics argue that his views carry bias or that his tone can be polarizing. But for many followers, his boldness and intellectual risk-taking are precisely what make his work compelling.

📚 Book Launch: Pakistan Lost: Ideas on the Idea of Pakistan

In September 2025, Shehzad Ghias released his debut full-length book, Pakistan Lost: Ideas on the Idea of Pakistan. The book is described as a collection of his ideas, grounded in probing research, about the nature of Pakistan’s identity, political struggles, and possible futures.

Themes & Content

According to publisher summaries, the book addresses several “ticklish” and foundational themes:

• The federalist agenda of the Lahore Resolution how the concept of autonomy and federation was envisioned, and how it has been implemented or betrayed over time.

• The minority questions how minorities have been treated, how pluralism has functioned (or not) in Pakistan’s history.

• Language and politics: the politics surrounding Urdu, regional languages, and how language relates to identity and power within Pakistan.

• Civil-military relations are a continuing fault line in Pakistan’s political system, and how it affects democracy, governance, and the state’s legitimacy.

• Constitutional crises and populism: how constitutional norms have been breached repeatedly, and how populist political forms manipulate public sentiments and identity.

• The book is being marketed as not just a critique, but also as a plea for a new consensus, a chance to reimagine policy, national narrative, and institutional relationships.

Reception & Launch

From early signals, Pakistan Lost has attracted attention. Shehzad himself expressed gratitude that it became one of the most pre-ordered books in Pakistan’s publishing market.

Events around its launch, such as panel discussions, talks between Shehzad and intellectuals, have begun to generate dialogue. For example, Shehzad was seen in conversation with Samya Arif and Nadeem Farooq Paracha on the history of Pakistan in relation to the book launch. The book is being sold by Pakistani book retailers and positioned as a political/current affairs volume.

Significance & Challenges

The release of Pakistan Lost is a milestone because it transitions Shehzad from primarily spoken and digital media into a more lasting, citable, and traditional medium of ideas. The permanence of a book offers a chance for deeper engagement, for critics and supporters alike.

However, there are challenges:

• The book enters a crowded and emotionally charged landscape: narratives about Pakistan’s founding, identity, and politics are fiercely contested. Any alternative interpretation invites pushback from entrenched interests.

• Shehzad’s persona and media presence (particularly through his podcast and comedic edge) may lead some to dismiss the book as merely polemical. Reconciling the tone of a public figure with the demands of sober scholarship is not easy.

• The depth of historical and theoretical critique required is high. To shift minds, the arguments must engage with historians, constitutional scholars, and political scientists, not just popular audiences.

Nevertheless, Pakistan Lost can be seen as part of a broader effort to provoke rethinking, to invite readers to question assumptions, and to participate in public discourse. In a society where history, identity, and power are contested, the act of publishing a new narrative is itself a political act. Shehzad Ghias Shaikh is an intriguing figure in contemporary Pakistan: someone who navigates the crossroads of comedy, art, and political critique. From small beginnings in youth theatre and improv, through law and theatre education, to hosting a major podcast and now releasing a book, his path reveals a consistent ambition: to interrogate the identity of Pakistan and challenge inherited narratives. His objectives are to open space for debate, demand institutional accountability, and encourage a more plural, inclusive, and critical public culture. Pakistan Lost marks a new phase in that journey a more formal invitation to readers to engage with his ideas on what Pakistan was, what it has become, and what it might yet be. If you like, I can expand this into a longer feature, or even provide a chapter-wise summary + takeaways from Pakistan Lost. Do you want me to create that?