Controversies
Paracha has largely remained withdrawn from all events taking place within the country's cultural scene. He is known to be a committed recluse and somewhat unfathomable. This has given birth to a number of theories about his eccentric behaviour and beliefs. Since Paracha only rarely gives interviews, he has never commented much on these theories, but very rarely has he ever denied them as well.
He has always been known to be a Marxist and then an anarchist. However, in a recent interview he gave to a cultural website, WeCite.com, he said that he was always, and still is, nothing more than an "old fashioned Socialist", even though in an earlier interview he did point out that he had been associated with various Marxist student groups and at least one anarchist concern, as a student in the eighties.
Paracha has only rarely commented on the politics of his student life but is known more for his activism for Marxist student groups and his agitation as a student leader against the Zia-ul-Haq dictatorship and against the various conservative pro-Zia Islamist student parties.
Throughout the nineties he was accused by some well known but conservative pop stars and their fans for promoting drug use, especially cannabis, through his articles. In 1996 Paracha was accused of being a user of cannabis by famous Pakistani pop star, Junaid Jamshed whom Paracha had begun to criticise for using his status to promote conservative religious views of the Tableeghi Jamaat that Junaid was in the process of joining.
This is another area Paracha had never commented upon until recently in an interview when he talked in some length about the problems he had in the nineties with hallucinogens. However, he returned in 2003 free from his habits, which he said almost killed him.
Even though praised by his fans and detractors alike for his distinct writing style and knowledge, many have accused him of being 'insensitive' in his written attacks usually aimed at celebrities with conservative views and strong religious beliefs.
They accuse him of imposing his secular views and being overtly sarcastic and caustic about people who talk openly about their religious beliefs, especially celebrities who make religious statements through their art.
Paracha has never commented about his religious beliefs. However in a column of his for Dawn newspaper, he alluded at being a "progressive and liberal Muslim", and in another piece for the same newspaper he sympathised with the Sufi schools of thought.
Another area Paracha has gotten into trouble for is his continuing criticism against corporate sponsorship in the country's music scene. He was the first writer to highlight this trend, so much so that his writings actually inspired a strong anti-sponsorship underground music scene in the mid-nineties.
His staunch anti-corporate stance contributed a lot into turning him into a figurehead for a number of young Pakistanis, but when on his return from hibernation in 2003, he was criticised for continuing to mock and "humiliate" pop stars on the corporate sponsorship issue but at the same time being involved in the conceptualising of advertising campaigns for companies like Telenor and their youth brand, djuice.
In spite of all the controversies and ambiguity that have revolved around Paracha, he continues to be hailed as a respected force and writer in the world of Pakistan's cultural and social journalism.
Though known to be an active anti-Zia activist during college and an opinionated leftist journalist in the nineties, he shocked many of his fans by openly supporting and praising General Pervez Musharraf's "anti-terrorism" policies in 2004.
In 2006 while appearing as a special guest on the popular radio show, the Fasi Zaka Show, on Pakistan's FM91, he also praised the Army's controversial role against supposed Al-Qaeda insurgents operating in the mountains of the country's rugged northern areas.
In May 2007, while writing his column in The Friday Times, Paracha defended the MQM and wrote that Punjabi politicians who are calling MQM fascist "have no idea about the social and political dynamics of Karachi and the MQM." The irony is that though many of his readers attacked Paracha for defending MQM's strong arm tactics in the 2007 Karachi Riots, Paracha is a Punjabi himself from his father's side.
In an interview given to Montreal's CBC Radio (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation), Paracha blamed the Pakistani electronic media for being irresponsible in reporting acts of terrorism and political events and blamed it for bringing upon the 2007 Pakistani state of emergency imposed by President Pervez Musharraf on 3 November 2007. This left many of his critics in the media accusing Paracha's politics of gradually moving from being staunchly leftist; but he remains to be a firm advocate of secularism and continues to support the Pakistan Peoples Party as a journalist and former member.
In an interview with Voice of America he lambasted an Islamic Scholar who had earlier been interviewed by the same radio channel and claimed that music was not allowed in Islam because it promoted obscenity. Paracha responded by saying that at the moment there is nothing more obscene than a suicide bomber exploding himself in public. He said Islamic scholars should be more interested in condemning such kind of obscenity rather than waste time by attacking an art like music.
While talking to National Public Radio (NPR) in Washington, D.C., on 5 April 2010, Paracha came down hard on famous Islamic preacher and televangelist, Farhat Hashmi. He said people like Hashmi were culturally and socially destructive.
Read more about this topic: Nadeem F. Paracha