Rumours and conspiracies
Wasn’t the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan said to have been about our warm waters? Never mind whether it was the Cold War or Charlie Wilson’s war, wasn’t there the obscure…
The softer option
Some time ago, 38 ex-militants were released after receiving vocational training at Navi Sahar, an armed forces’ institute in Bajaur. It was an endeavour to reintegrate them into society, as…
Shadow of Iraq war looms large in region
From the streets of Cairo to the battlefields in Syria, the legacy of the 2003 invasion of Iraq still looms large in the Arab world, as regional power balances continue…
Of absurdity and tragedy
Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s sudden gush of ‘peace-mongering’ and the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) and the PML-N’s support for the same is one of those absurdities of life that are too deep for…
US curriculum aid?
THE enterprise for which some Pakistani officials and religious scholars are reported to have joined hands with US experts, namely, production of a model curriculum for madressahs, is unlikely to…
The Jewish vote
According to the Election Commission of Pakistan, there are around 800 Jewish voters registered in Pakistan out of which 427 are women and 382 men. This statistic seems odd because…
The clouds refuse to part
This was supposed to be our moment. Yours and mine, the ordinary folk. Movie-like, our heads were to break through the storm clouds and briefly catch a glimpse of clear…
A pipeline to some sovereignty
Just last year the leading national flavour was anti-Americanism... and the heroic assertion of national sovereignty. After the Raymond Davis affair, the stealth assault on Bin Laden’s hideout in Abbottabad…
Zardari, Nawaz and the factors
Unfortunately, external forces exercise an unjustifiable influence on Pakistan’s internal issues and politics. By external forces here I do not mean only the Unites States but also Britain, other European…
The frenzy
Talk now is firmly focused on the election, which is less than two months away. So far, the PPP and the PML-N remain the two most potent forces in the…
