Pakistan, July 9 -- On his death anniversary, we commemorate Prof. Waris Mir-an unyielding intellectual and torchbearer of democratic ideals, whose pen fearlessly challenged the darkest chapters of Pakistan's history. As a professor in the Mass Communication Department at Punjab University, Lahore, Waris Mir lived and wrote during General Zia-ul-Haq's repressive dictatorship - a time when dissent was a punishable offense and truth a forbidden commodity.
"A writer doesn't just record the present," he noted in 1985, "he scripts history for future generations. But when truth itself is censored, how can accuracy survive?" These words encapsulate the existential burden borne by truth-seekers under authoritarian rule.
His most enduring legacy w...