Alliances forged by Kenya's main presidential contenders for elections in March are lining up a repeat of a largely ethnic-based contest for political power which exploded into bloodshed in the…
An issue that should have been debated in parliament was the subject of an international conference – the status and future of Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata). Reforms to…
I recently attended an exhibition titled ‘Gaming in Waziristan’ at London’s Beaconsfield Art Gallery. The show included a slide projection of photographs by journalist Noor Behram, who has been documenting…
Last week I had identified some steps that Pakistan had taken to promote reconciliation in Afghanistan. I had suggested that there were further measures that Pakistan should also take, urgently, since…
The PPP-led government, despite all its failures in tackling the issues of massive corruption, bad governance and the worsening law and order situation, should certainly be credited for some of…
THE path to a modicum of prosperity and a semblance of security in the tribal areas is a straight line: it starts from the village Jalaldin where Miangul Kukikhel lives…
During a visit to Tank, a Mehsud tribesman surprised me with some blunt remarks. Supporting drone attacks in Fata, the young tribesman from South Waziristan Agency said, “We see in…
Yet again the army finds itself caught between the devil of a mushrooming tribal insurgency and the deep blue sea of palace “conspiracies.” The president, in his fiery oration on…
The Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata), the buffer zone used by the British against Tsarist Russia, was brought back into the limelight after 9/11. Recently, Washington’s focus on the Haqqani…
Ever since independence, the successive governments and the political leaders have been expressing their resolve to repeal the FCR, integrate the tribal areas with rest of the country and grant…
