The New Year is usually associated with joy but this time around a great many countries approached it bad that happened, whether in Pakistan or outside seemed to be our fault or so we were told. And what about our leaders? They being interested mostly in self survival, fell over themselves in keeping the USA,…
Terrorist Activities in Pakistan Suicide Bombings13 persons, including a Policeman, were killed and more that 20 others were injured in an incident of suicide attack in Swabi town on March 30, reports Daily Times. According to security sources, the suicide bomber, riding a motorbike, blew himself up near a Police check post on Ambar Interchange…
Literally meaning the ‘land of the pure’, Pakistan has been in the grip of extremism of one sort or the other – ethnic, linguistic, sectarian and religious – almost since its birth. Six decades after independence, we continue to struggle with basic issues relating to identity, democracy and constitutionalism. Elections are always a saga of…
While the Osama Bin Laden (OBL) raid was indeed disastrous for the Army’s image, to condemn the ISI outright without hard evidence for the horrific Saleem Shahzad kidnapping and murder is terribly unfair. Casting aspersions and accusations on flimsy basis without evidence is normal in a society where defamation laws are neither strong enough nor…
Gen Pervez Musharraf’s personal ambitions neatly coincided with the state of the State in Oct 1999, despite Mian Nawaz Sharif’s “heavy mandate”, his military takeover was widely welcomed by all sections of society. Expected to correct the system of governance turned by a decade of “democracy’ into a complete farce, the premise was that if…
Some critics of the uniform within Pakistan genuinely (and rightly) believe that nationhood stems from Constitutional rule, the real bile and venom emanates from a despicable few mostly in line with vested external forces hostile to the country. Unfortunately the intense negative propaganda is joined by many who act in good faith but do not…
President Obama has announced the draw down schedule of American troops from Afghanistan. Eighteen months ago, he was misled by his generals into a massive troop surge that he personally didn’t fully support. He has now re-shuffled his war and diplomatic teams to lead the path of de-escalation. However, America and its ISAF/NATO paraphernalia appear…
In the recently held elections, Turkish Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) has once again won the hearts and minds of the voters and scored a tremendous third consecutive electoral victory. The results showed AKP won 49.9 percent, or 326 seats, just below the 330 required for a plebiscite. The voters marked AKP’s biggest…
GeneralThe state of Jammu and Kashmir is located at the extreme western section of the Great Himalayan range where it merges with the Hindu Kush, the Karakorum and Central Asia. Kashmir has been described as a “garden of eternal spring or an iron fort to a palace of Kings” by Mughal Emperor Jehangir. Kashyap-pur, Kashir,…
“The desire to gain an immediate selfish advantage always imperils their ultimate interests. If they recognize this fact, they usually recognize it too late”. Reinhold Niebuhr There is long history of security relations between Pakistan and several Arab countries. In 1970s and 80s, many Arab countries flushed with oil money bought state of the art…
