Imran Khan in Balochistan
Addressing his first public gathering in Quetta in April, Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan condemned the security operation in the province and vowed to find a political solution to…
The army and the constitution
A delegation of army officers from the prestigious Command and Staff College, Quetta visiting the Supreme Court (SC) were told by their host, Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, that repeated…
Patterns of response
Counting a few major attacks claimed by the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) during the last three months in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Fata delineate three clear tactical patterns. (It must be noted…
Civil-military relations
ON June 14, 1948, Jinnah visited the army staff college, Quetta, and spoke to the army officers present. He was frail and weak and had only three more months to…
When bad men combine…
When Marx spoke of the withering away of the state, he envisaged society progressing to a higher stage – a sort of classless utopia. When Pakistanis speak of their state…
Listen to the people
The prime minister has paid a brief visit to Quetta. He might have received detailed reports on the situation in Baluchistan from provincial ministers, senior bureaucrats and political workers of…
Books in times of war
A children’s Literature Festival in Quetta sounds like a contradiction in terms. Quetta is in Balochistan and one doesn’t have to be reminded that the province is in the grip…
Librarians as teachers
At the Children’s Literature Festival in Quetta last month, the provincial education secretary had promised to make provisions for a library in every government school in Balochistan. If this actually…
The Scylla of violence
This is a political war and it calls for discrimination in killing." -- John Paul Vann, US adviser in Vietnam. The recent killing of Professor Nazima Talib in Quetta has…
