Elections 2013 is over. Post elections political heat is also going to cool. Dust of defeat and rigging is confronting in different parts of the country. PML-N Chief Mian Nawaz Sharif’s sher is roaring. Tehrik-e-Insaaf Chairman Imran Khan’s tsunami has already hit the mountainous areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The new change has many prospects and…
Pak-Afghan relations have an interesting dynamics; just when there is a feeler of improvement, they nosedive into another crisis. Nonetheless, it is encouraging that soon after each crisis, both Islamabad and Kabul resume taking measured steps to bring the ties back on track. Latest rupture came last month when Afghanistan’s presidential spokesperson Aimal Faizi said…
Similar to other Islamists in the several parts of the Muslim world, Pakistani Islamists have also used intolerant and exclusivist rhetoric. They have abused religion in a heavy-handed manner as the dominating tool of their political ideology and have confined religious concepts and values to certain parties and groups, nationalizing, modernizing, Islamizing and politicizing them….
Regard your soldiers as your children, and they will follow you into the deepest valleys; look on them as your own beloved sons, and they will stand by you even unto death. Sun Tzu. Yaum-e-Shuhada is being observed throughout Pakistan on April 30. The purpose of observing this day is that Pakistanis as a nation…
After over sixty six years of independence, some people still raise the fundamental question: Why was Pakistan created? Muslims and Hindus lived in India for centuries relatively peacefully. However despite many cultural, social commonalties both maintained their distinct identity. Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah initially joined Congress and was known as ambassador of Hindu-Muslim unity, but…
During general elections in Pakistan every major political party advocates popular policies and catchy slogans like roti, kapra aur makan (bread, clothing and shelter) in order to win public support. In other words, they try to win elections to implement their preferred policies. In both cases, the aim is to govern. Religious parties are no…
Afghanistan is passing through unfortunate times. Three streams of fragile transition are in progress; all in an indecent haste to meet the 2014 timeline. These are in security, political and economic domains. Though political transition holds the key to success; it is the patchiest of all. Transfer of power to President Karzai’s successor having enough…
As opposed to the 15th of March (the Roman “Ides of March”), the entire month of March seems linked with Pakistan’s destiny. March 23 marks the 1940 Resolution for the muslims of South Asia aspiring for a separate homeland, the fateful Army action in Dhaka in 1971 started late evening of March 25. By early…
The phrase “may you live in interesting times” is a Chinese curse heaped on an enemy. Frederic Coudert quotes an unknown British diplomat in 1936, “no age has been fraught with more insecurity than our present time”, three years later the Second World War ravaged the world between 1939 and 1945. We in Pakistan have…
The US agenda with Pakistan pre-9/11 was, in order of priority viz (1) nuclear non-proliferation (2) terrorism and (3) drugs, with the Taliban government in Afghanistan figuring prominently in the last two issues. The reason for our nuclear assets and the means to deliver them is not complicated, we live in a very tough neighbourhood…
