Fake debates, rhetorical flourishes
A doughty, decent , hardworking lady and full of common sense, Pervez Musharraf’s mother told a group of journalists more than a decade ago that the family did not have…
Different women
The US-educated Pakistani scientist – jailed in the US on terrorist charges – Dr Aafia Siddiqui, is back in the news. In fact she never entirely disappeared from it, with…
Tapping energy resources
According to the ‘Global Economic Prospects’ report, South Asian regional growth declined from 7.4 percent in 2011 to an estimated 5.4 percent in 2012, mainly due to a sharp slowdown…
Humanity at stake in Syria
Wimp. That’s what pundits in the west and Middle East seem to think about President Barack Obama following his ‘flip-flop’ over Syria. Even those opposed to western interference in the…
Spotlight: Talk about talks with Taliban: confusion worse confounded!: Issues arise and hang about: something has to give!
In politics as in business enterprises there is an inventory of issues, some making their appearance, others climaxing to take center stage while yet others make their exit after resolution…
Afraid of anarchy, Israeli lobbies for Egypt’s military
As the violence and political chaos deepen in Egypt, authorities in Israel are attempting to reconcile two new realities: relief that the Muslim Brotherhood lost power and fear that the…
Without giving in
In his first address to the nation, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif reiterated his offer of peace talks to the Pakistani Taliban, which was later welcomed by Asmatullah Muawiya, the head…
A narrow agenda
IT appears the prime minister`s revised offer of talks to the militants in his first address to the nation accentuated the existing differences among the latter on how to respond.…
The unpredictable Hamid Karzai
Hamid Karzai was welcomed in Islamabad on Monday with a 21-gun salute in accordance with the ceremonious and absurdly meaningless usages of protocol. But in a sense the booming of…
A martyr to the cause of Reason
The assassination of Indian anti-superstition activist Narendra Dabholkar in Pune is an ugly black mark on society. The forces of fanatical intolerance, superstition, irrationality and social reaction which killed Dabholkar…
