Why we break lines and why it matters
For as long as I can remember, I have been hearing the argument that we Pakistanis just cannot stand in lines. The argument is usually made in conjunction with the…
Moving out of Af-Pak
Tomorrow Pakistan’s prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, will meet President Barack Obama in Washington, to signal Islamabad’s renewed interest in a broad-based relationship with the US. This will be the first…
Will negotiations deliver?
Soon after Pakistan's political parties agreed at an All-Party Conference to negotiate peace with militants, a spokesman for the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) had welcomed the move. But immediately thereafter, a…
China deploys ‘charm diplomacy’ at ASEAN summit
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has been on a charm offensive at the annual leaders' summit at the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Brunei, seizing on the absence of…
Remedy begins at home
During his nine-year rule, Gen (r) Musharraf almost found a place for himself in the Guinness Book of World Records as a Marco Polo head of state. Had he not…
Luck running out
On September 4, 2013, the Government of Pakistan signed its 19th Agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). In 2011, it appeared that Pakistan had bid adieu to the IMF…
Obama’s absence hands floor to China at Asian summits
As US President Barrack Obama cancelled a planned trip to South-east Asia on Friday, China announced visits by Premier Li Keqiang to Thailand, Vietnam and three summits of regional leaders…
A non-meeting
Neither side expected much of the meeting in New York, on Sept 29, between the prime ministers of India and Pakistan. Yet, it need not have gone the way it…
Flawed presumption
They met, shook hands and inquired about one another’s health in their shared mother tongue. But they could not tell the people of their needlessly estranged countries what they have…
Gets funnier all the time
Go to YouTube, through a proxy server if you must, and click ‘Pak Tower in Ilford’ and you’ll see two tall tower blocks (plazas as we like to call them…
