In Pakistan, intellectual endeavours especially those emanating from the government are few and far between. Therefore, any governmental work done in that domain should be cherished. Consequently, the recently released National Security Policy its publicly available version anyway should be appreciated. I have previously written about rebooting the national security framework of Pakistan so that…
To say that America’s Afghanistan debacle has put the cat amongst the pigeons would be a grave understatement! For now, the area has become a hotbed of more uncertainty and instability. An abrupt and poorly planned end to more than 20 years of occupation will do that to a region. On cue, recriminations have started…
When it comes to recent political heavy weights, none come closer to matching Angela Merkel’s record! The 67 year old has been in power since 2005 and is the third longest-serving chancellor in German history, bested only by ‘Chancellor of Unity’ Helmut Kohl in the 20th century and Otto Von Bismarck in the 19th century….
Baton wielding protesters, emotionally charged crowds, struggling law enforcement agencies, scared and inconvenienced normal-day individuals, impending signs of causalities welcome to another saga of surrender of the state to the group it had recently declared a terrorist outfit! Lest we forget, this is not the first time. Numerous governments in the past have faced the…
AUKUS, seems like a name of a secret organisation from a Robert Ludlum or an Ian Fleming novel. Cold War parallels notwithstanding, it does seem to hark back to an era of intrigue and espionage. This is of course the new working group recently announced by Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, UK Prime Minister Boris…
“In war, the moral is to the physical as ten is to one”. This quote from Napoleon Bonaparte could be an apt description of what happened to the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) in front of the ever-advancing Taliban! While the speed of ANDSF’s capitulation was a shock, the end results perhaps not…
Briefings by the military high command to parliamentarians have become a regular feature in Pakistan. So the recently concluded national security meeting on 1st of July 2021 shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. If media reports are to be believed, the topics under discussion were Kashmir, Afghanistan and internal security. Going by recent chain…
Even by Pakistan’s highly desensitised standards, the recent case of underage sexual abuse takes the sorry tale of sordid events to a new low. The impact may not be profound even though it ought to be when you hear or read about such incidents. However, the existence of a sickening video makes it hard to…
Pakistan is an example in dichotomy! And the social sphere is not beyond the same reproach, we treat others as we ourselves don’t want to be treated. This is true for all strata of society from immediate family to clans to national leaders. Two recent examples push this notion firmly into the spotlight. The rationale…
Gloria Steinem an American journalist and socio-political activist says “law and justice are not always the same. When they aren’t, destroying the law may be the first step toward changing it”. Witness any court case and this will become obvious the losing party almost always cries injustice! Scores of lawyers and their clients can be…
