The 33 million dollar question
On January 17, Obama signed into law the Consolidated Appropriations Bill 2014, a 1,582-page piece of legislation authorising the spending of $1.1 trillion by different agencies of the US government,…
Faustian bargain?
What do you do when the killers say that they will kill you if you say that they are killers? Should you sell your soul to the devil? Or should…
The politics of the dead
Several human rights activists in Pakistan have observed the ‘double jeopardy’ that enables the systematic mass murders of the Hazara community in Balochistan. Their ethnic facial features make them identifiable…
Terrorist threat and our what-abouters
Let no words be minced. The rats are winning. They are winning the war psychologically (and ideologically). That is always the essence of any war but more so of irregular…
Curse of the IEDs
Pakistan has been in the grip of brutal and senseless attacks by militants using improvised explosive devices (IEDs) for some time now. In the latest attack, 27 security personnel were…
Slide towards isolation
IT is ironic that in the wake of the rightwing political mantra about a `free` and `sovereign` Pakistan, recent reports on socio-cultural indicators depict a dismal picture of the country`s…
Menace of extortion
AMONG the heinous crimes which have spread across urban Pakistan over the past five or six years is the collection of bhatta or ‘protection’ money and extortion. Primarily a Karachi…
The path to reconciliation
DESPITE Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s assurances to President Hamid Karzai on the subject during his recent visit to Kabul, much mystery still surrounds the release of Mullah Baradar. However, the…
The future — again
NEW Year predictions usually aren`t worth the paper they`re written on. For who, with TUQ running around the country this time last year, would have bet on a straightforward transition…
Human bombs
THE grand mufti of Saudi Arabia, Sheikh Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah Al Sheikh, recently termed suicide bombers as `criminals` who will go to `hell`. In the 1980s, suicide attacks were…
