The New York Times just published a fascinating piece about a Iranian scientist named Shahram Amiri, who has sought refuge in the Pakistani Embassy’s Iran interest section in Washington D.C. The piece shows that there are at least two different versions of the story and clearly demonstrates the murky and cold waters that run over […]
It often goes unremarked but politics is nothing more than the show of armed, military might sublimated through votes and caucuses. So it is somewhat odd that the majority of the coverage of Pakistani politics related to the so-called ‘War on Terror’ is principally concerned with terrorism and the growing insurgency of the Tehrik e- […]
If it wasn’t sufficiently clear before, it should be now: the Pakistani Taliban (Tehrik e- Taliban) are out to bring down the ‘apostate” government in Islamabad, piece, region by region, piece by piece. It were as if the Taliban were only moved to refute the writ and authority of the central government, which it thinks […]
The issue that is handily, wrenchingly, confounding the Pakistani military is the one that has long confounded the NATO command in Afghanistan. That issue, that problem has been canvassed well in a recent New York Times article . The issue is this: How can one separate out the enemy from the friendly citizen? No real answer […]
In a recent press conference Mian Nawaz Sharif – the head of the largest opposition Party Pakistan Muslim League-N (PMLN) – claimed that terrorism in Pakistan is a result of government’s foreign policies. Sharif made the comments two days after two terrorist suicide bombers had attacked the most popular Sufi shrine in Punjab. The province […]
Salman Masood recently wrote a very interesting blog post for the New York Times At War blog. The U.S. has passed along 3 F-16 fighter planes to the Pakistani Air Force; the transfer has caused much strutting fan fare and has germinated a crashing wave crop of billowing, swollen chests. Citing reportage in Dawn, the […]
Given the latest news of the strategic suicide bombing in Lahore, it’s important that we think hard about what we are fighting for in Pakistan. We need to ask: What is the U.S. fighting for in Pakistan? What is Pakistan fighting for? An answer to either question is not readily available. Perhaps neither question is […]
Michael Hastings’ article published in Rolling Stone magazine has claimed more than Gen. McChrystal’s career. Seemingly taking the U.S. leadership hostage, the article seems now to have extended its long tendrils and has squarely, elastically exploded onto U.S. foreign policy in Pakistan and Afghanistan. The New York Times published a stunning article this morning that […]
As the recession hit; the jobless rates soared to 10% and more, banks at the brink of failing, stock exchange plummeted, and economy was left paralyzed. All this happened in United States, which sparked a global recession, bringing down Europe and Asia along with it. This global recession was worst on developing nations, as they […]
If there was ever any doubt about Pakistan’s ability to survive as a country, the recent attacks in Lahore have once and for all settled the issue – Pakistan is a ticking time bomb with no way to unplug or stop the bomb from exploding. And, even with this tragedy, there are people in Pakistan […]
Zainab Jeewanjee discusses Pakistan’s ban on facebook. She draws a parallel between the notion of a Red and Blue America, to two distinct Pakistan’s. According to Jeewanjee, a ban on Facebook demonstrates the governments failure to lead its Red and Blue population toward more religious sensitbility.
Writing in Wall Street Journal, Sadanand Dhume asks the obvious question. Why do Pakistan and the Pakistani diaspora churn out such a high proportion of the world’s terrorists? Indonesia has more Muslims than Pakistan. Turkey is geographically closer to the troubles of the Middle East. The governments of Iran and Syria are immeasurably more hostile […]
Another lunatic tried unsuccessfully to explode a bomb in New York. Thank God he failed, but his failure has left all of us thinking, once again, what the heck is going on? As for as we know, the alleged Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad had no reason to kill innocent civilians, but after his arrest, we now […]
Monday April 19, 2010 – President Zardari made history by signing the landmark constitutional reforms amendment bill into law. Zardari – after taking office 18 months ago – pledged to reform the constitution. He promised that all the anomalies that were created by the dictators to protect their powers will be removed from the constitution. After this amendment the […]
First, please understand that it does not matter if you are pathan or belong to Hazara. It is not a linguistic issue – it has become an ethnic issue. So, not everyone living in Hazara speak Hindko and there is a respectable chunk of population that converses in Pushto, but, these Pushto speaking people too […]