What role does literature have to play in the context of Pakistans troubled political situation?
The imagination matters. Yes, Pakistan’s political situation is troubled, and so it is important to be able to see things differently, to look through other eyes, to break out of tyrannies of habit. Literature helps us transcend ourselves. Do the international media treat Pakistani writers differently from Indian writers? Certainly, historically, there has been more attention given in the international media to Indian English-language writers than to Pakistani English-language writers. But that, in my opinion, was justified by the sheer number of excellent writers coming from India and the Indian diaspora. Now the number of superb Pakistani-origin writers is growing quickly, and international attention is growing, too. I’ve never felt disadvantaged in any way by being a Pakistani writer, not since my first book, Moth Smoke, was published a decade ago. Quite the opposite. Are Pakistani writers pigeonholed? I don’t feel pigeonholed. I’ve written one novel about a hash-smoking, heroin-add
