It seems that President Zardari’s trip abroad has been successful, if the criterion was to have pledges announced by the leaders of the countries that President visited. Starting with Libya and now ending in France, everywhere Mr. Zardari went; he was greeted warmly, heard sympathetically and given what he asked for, or at least that […]
This report about the plight of minorities in Pakistan paints a very disturbing picture about the overall situation in the country. Actually, no Asian country can take pride in this area because for some reason, minorities always live in fear and it is easy to terrorize frightened people. However, this is no excuse as […]
Pakistan is not big a country and therefore, when one part is affected, the entire country feels the pressure. Now, after the operation against the Taliban in Swat, millions of people have migrated from the area and this exodus has created a tremendous humanitarian challenge for Pakistan. Not only is the country responsible for housing […]
It is just awful to see how rapidly everything in Pakistan is degenerating. There is hardly any sector or segment in the society that is either stable or making any progress. The overall situation looks even bleaker when one hears the masses talk about their daily lives. Therefore, it is not unusual to see […]
O.K Washington doubles Pakistan’s aid and Zardari is assured full support for his government. O.K Washington is doing everything possible to help Islamabad where according to Obama the government is fragile. While there, Zardari has said all the right things. So, what is next? Will the hunger and poverty, joblessness, and other economic problems in […]
It seems that president Zardari’s trip to Washington has been a success, even though, before he arrived there, there were rumors of tension between Washington and Islamabad. Well, there is some truth to the rumors of serious differences between Pakistan and the U.S., so eloquently described by Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister (no relation) […]
PESHAWAR: Shop owner Saeed Khan has already buried one child killed in fighting between the Taliban and government forces in northwest Pakistan. He cannot bear to lose another, AFP reports. So the 50-year-old bundled his wife, son and daughter onto a bus in the Taliban-infested town of Mingora in the Swat valley and […]
MINGORA/BATKHELA: Forty-seven militants, 15 security personnel and 36 non-combatants were killed and several others wounded on Wednesday in fierce clashes and explosions in the Swat valley and Malakand region. Sources said security forces killed 30 militants near emerald mines and 15 others in Takhtaband area, in the outskirts of Mingora. The ground forces […]
LONDON: Turbulent Pakistan has replaced Iraq as the place to go for militants bent on striking the West, but the threat of US attacks means al Qaeda recruits may spend more time out of sight in a classroom than on an assault course. Long a favoured destination of British militants of Pakistani descent, Pakistan’s […]
Many young men and soldiers hailing from diverse societies identify with the concept of dying for honour, the latter term referring to a willingness to die in battle. One of the ways of building up such an idea is through the process of indoctrination — as in the case of those who are recruited for […]
Sufi Mohammad, the man on whom the government pinned its hopes after entering into a peace deal with the extremists, has declared that democracy amounts to kufr. Concurrently, referring to the ‘security forces and the rulers of Pakistan’ as the militants’ target, a TTP spokesman has said that the ANP that heads the NWFP government […]
On Monday, April 4, veteran journalist Ahmed Rashid addressed a select crowd at Karachi’s Mohatta Palace Museum. Not surprisingly, the subject of his talk was ‘Afghanistan and Pakistan: Quest for Peace or Recipe for War?’ He argued that Pakistan was facing a major existential crisis: ‘I no longer say that there’s a creeping Talibanisation in […]
As Taliban forces edged to within 60 miles of Islamabad late last month, the Obama administration urgently asked for new intelligence assessments of whether Pakistan’s government would survive. In briefings last week, senior officials said, President Obama and his National Security Council were told that neither a Taliban takeover nor a military coup was imminent […]
MOHRI PUR, Pakistan — The elementary school in this poor village is easy to mistake for a barn. It has a dirt floor and no lights, and crows swoop through its glassless windows. Class size recently hit 140, spilling students into the courtyard. But if the state has forgotten the children here, the mullahs have […]
WASHINGTON — As the insurgency of the Taliban and Al Qaeda spreads in Pakistan, senior American officials say they are increasingly concerned about new vulnerabilities for Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal, including the potential for militants to snatch a weapon in transport or to insert sympathizers into laboratories or fuel-production facilities. The officials emphasized that there was […]