Circle of death
The extraordinary attempt earlier this month by 47 United States senators to sabotage one of their nation’s most significant diplomatic initiatives served as a reminder that some of the Obama…
Causes of Islamist militancy
As terrorist violence from ‘Islamic’ militants spreads across the world, from Peshawar to Paris, affected states are struggling to devise effective responses. So far, most of their responses have addressed…
One sane course
PAKISTAN will defend Saudi Arabia’s territorial integrity, was the one declaration made public from the meeting of the country’s civilian and military leadership to ‘consider’ a Saudi request for material…
Disregard of international law
A VERY large section of teachers at seminaries and religious scholars refuse to see Muslims as anything other than a single organic ummah. For them, the resort to coercive methods…
Will history repeat itself?
April 4 is the 36th anniversary of Pakistan’s foremost leader Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. Just when I sat down to write a memorial piece, a fellow writer emailed me the news…
A year on, no quick fix to halt IS ‘caliphate’
A year after its establishment, the Islamic State group's self-declared "caliphate" in Syria and Iraq remains well-funded and heavily armed, and experts say it could be around for years to…
A post ‘war-on-terror’ Pakistan?
In social, economic, political and even descriptive ways, Pakistan seems to have entered a post-WoT era. In 2013, the first ever civilian-led electoral transition ushered in a new government and…
A moment of truth
In the barbaric killing of 45 members of the Shia Ismaili community in Karachi on Wednesday, there clearly were some reverberations of the massacre of the Army Public School students…
NFC award: a challenge
The four provinces have appointed their representatives for negotiating the eighth NFC award however there are credible reports that indicate that the seventh NFC award would be extended for another…
Venezuela drug trade rings alarm bells
Hidden in a large ochre-colored container, the 1.4 tonnes of cocaine got past two dozen army checkpoints during a 500-mile journey from the Colombian border to the Venezuelan capital. The…
