azi, A Hameed, Tariq Ismail Saghar and many others represented a populist culture based on a concept that the world is 'out there to get us', that there are conspiracies being hatched against this poor nation and that one must be watchful of any foreign elements.Graduating from Ishtiaq Ahmeds works, one would often go on to read the more serious Mazhar Kaleem BA, then A Hameed and finally to Tariq Ismail Saghar. If embalmed with the new found evangelism of the Tableeghi Jamaat, young devotes would soon turn into a Maududi or a Syed Qutb or Sheikh Baaz.The more 'educated' minds would go on to find other parallel truths like Freemasons, Illuminatis, Protocols, Jewish Hegemony and CIA/Mossad/Raw connections.I remember that after 9/11, a rather liberal friend of mine explained the context of the date. He said in Freemasonry there were 10 levels. The 9th for the people, and the 10th for God. By choosing 9/11, the Freemasons are hinting that we will not let God rule the world and from the 9th level (Democracy) we will go directly to 11th level (Satanic Rule). And yes, this friend was a fan of Ishtiaq Ahmed in his early years.It would be fair to say Ishtiaq Ahmed was among those writers who helped shape the volatile society that Pakistan has become. Impressionable young minds soaked up his narrative of history and grew up believing in a world where things are not always as they may seem.These were the books that shaped the current mindset, which believes every natural calamity may be an act of sabotage by Satan; every famous divorce a Jewish plot and every political turmoil a conspiracy hatched by a Masonic lodge or one of our minorities.If we are to understand the mindset of today's generation, we might want to look back at what happened in the 80s and the 90s in Pakistan. This is the only way we can learn from history and hopefully stop it from repeating itself.