Imran Khalid Usman is a civil engineer by profession and a lifelong observer of Pakistani politics and society. His political engagement began during the era of General Zia ul Haq’s military regime (1977–1988), a period whose sectarian and authoritarian legacies form a central concern of his writing. In these years he was an active member of the now-defunct Pakistan Socialist Party, led by C. R. Aslam, remaining involved with the party until the early 1990s.

His political outlook was shaped in part by the reformist final years of the Soviet Union, and he has expressed a favorable view of Mikhail Gorbachev’s policies during that period — while stopping short of the view that the USSR’s dissolution was historically inevitable. Despite this sympathy for aspects of that era, he is unambiguous in his conclusion that communism and socialism, as systems, are obsolete for the modern world.

Drawing on decades of firsthand observation as a citizen and, in his own words, “a certain amount of political activism during my younger years,” Usman writes as both participant and analyst of Pakistan’s post-independence trajectory. Culprits in the Mind: Perspectives on Pakistan reflects his lifelong observation of the social, religious, and political fault lines of the country, from Muslim nationalism and sectarian fracture to the legacies of colonialism, class, and the rule of law.