Meeting POTUS
THE prime minister will meet the president of the US on July 22. The Foreign Office will prepare essential briefing materials. Leaders ignore them at their peril. Pakistan-US relations are not good.…
Some more on Tipu and Tughluq
My previous column about Girish Karnad and his plays ‘The Dreams of Tipu’ and ‘Tughluq’ drew the attention of readers more internationally than nationally. There was a stream of emails…
Education and social justice
In the 9/11 commission report it was recommended that Pakistan should be given more financial support in order to improve its education sector. There was a concern that madressahs were…
Fate of an icon
THOSE of us who have seen Empress Market develop over the years into the vibrant heart of Saddar in Karachi wonder about its fate after the anti-encroachment drive of recent…
Poor South African savers ruined by bank collapse
"As treasurer of my stokvel, I had to go to the bank almost every day to find out what is happening," said Annah Muambadzi, 65, of the panic that gripped…
New beginning, old baggage
Last week, South Africa’s Jacob Zuma lost the internal struggle within his party and was forced out of the presidency. Cyril Ramaphosa led a successful factional fight to oust Zuma…
Playing football with Lenin
Russian communist revolutionary Lenin has remained an inspiration for generations of young people across the world in their wars of independence, mainly against Western colonialists. Many freedom fighters in British…
Reading the Indian mind
To most Pakistanis, it is an enigma. One can never tell what an Indian mind may be thinking. And it doesn’t speak well of the two people. Surely, the Indians…
Revisiting history
The Pakistani state’s claims of hybrid warfare or fifth generation war may be debatable. But the definition of what the Americans have been doing in Afghanistan since 2001 is not…
Congratulations Fata
Finally, all the constitutional requirements to merge the (now formerly) Federally Administrated Tribal Areas (Fata) with the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) have been fulfilled successfully. Geographically, Fata is a…
