‘Featured’ Archives

LAHORE, Aug 14: Pakistan should move away from the zero-sum security rivalry with India to be able to emerge as a successful, modern democratic society, says a distinguished American foreign policy expert. “It is vital for Pakistan to shift its strategic focus from a dead-end losing competition with India to a developmental competition,” [...]

The existential threat comes from disowning the democratic structure, giving up on it and looking yet again for another instant messiah in face of tremendous adversity and hopelessness. We were wrong in the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, and 1990s when the elected governments were overthrown. And if we continue with our mindless obsession with artificial [...]

 پاکستانی تاریخ کے گزشتہ عشرے عظیم سیاسی اتھل تھپل کے غماز ہیں۔ ان اَدوار میں بائیں بازو کی قؤتوں کا جو اُبھار دیکھنے میں آیا۔ وہ ملکی سیاست میں سنگِ میل کی حیثیت رکھتا تھا۔ ذوالفقار علی [...]

Instead of writing a detailed article, please accept this as a humble plea. Please open your hearts, as things are really bad in Pakistan. Now the estimated figure is that 4 crore (40 million) people have been affected and displaced people are left with nothing. UN today said 3 million childern are potential target of water borne diseases like [...]

The day must come when sanity prevails in Balochistan, no matter which side proves to be acting in a rational manner. Pakistan is in a very bad way.  By most standards of measurement, it is a failed state, or very close to it.  The emergencies generated by the latest natural disasters probably won’t cause forced relocations quite as [...]

Yesterday seven people were killed only by snake biting in the flood ravaged areas of Pakistan. The deadly Python are increasing the sufferings of the flood victims in the Southern Punjab and now Sind.  While entire transportation infrastructure in Khyber-Pakhtunkhaw has been swept away, out of 5000 km roads only 350 has survived the ferocious [...]

“Mohammed Ali Jinnah, Pakistan’s first leader, in the doorway of his study in Karachi in September, 1947, just weeks after the new country was formed.” PHOTO/Bettmann/Corbis/The New York Times This August marks the beginning of the 64th year of the independence of India and the birth of Pakistan. Jawaharlal Nehru’s love for India and [...]

A month ago, the two provinces of the country had a row about the “Water Issue” in Pakistan. There was lack of water for agriculture and in some areas there had been great shortage of drinking water. Neither Punjab nor the Sindh were willing to part ways with due share of water. The sweltering heat had compelled them to bow before Almighty [...]

With monsoonal rains continuing, the worst flooding in Pakistan in 80 years is still spreading. Pakistani relief organisations and government agencies are stretched to the limit. Yet despite urgent appeals from the UN and other aid organisations, the level of international aid is pitiful, even measured against the limited assistance donated [...]

Every action has a reaction. The reaction can differ from person to person and party to party. The media especially some elements in it, like the Jang Group and now ARY, with its change of guard, have been targeting the PPP and its leadership without fail. Be it the restoration of judges, carbon tax, NRO, Kerry Lugar Bill, 18th Amendment, and now [...]

Generation Axe by Nadeem F. Paracha Source: http://blog.dawn.com/2010/08/08/generation-axe/ It does pain me to see a lot of ground-level PPP workers being pushed into a corner by their party leader’s nonchalant ways. They seem and sound helpless and exhausted in trying to defend their leader who has become the target of an [...]

Oscar Wilde once described patriotism as “the virtue of the vicious”. In the many articles published in this newspaper, I have tried to steer clear of the vicious kind of narrow chest-thumping patriotism, preferring Benjamin Franklin’s version instead — a patriot ought to remain true to his country, right or wrong, provided that when [...]

Pakistan may have lost a talented fiction writer when Fatima Bhutto went into journalism. Clearly, she is adept at spinning a tale, fudging facts and re-defining reality in a manner that is the exclusive domain of talented story tellers. Throw in her photogenic looks and her propensity to endear herself with the security establishment and she [...]

Yesterday was the most shameful day for Pakistan but it wasn’t less than a treat for people who still believe a “Zia” will appear out of thin air as Mehdi or something. Although there is no video evidence of the shameful and bashful act that took place during President’s address in Birmingham but let’s try to analyze the events in [...]

Our regular contributor, Kashif Naseer, has raised a very pertinent point. Fakhr-e-Alam, a renowned celebrity and media personality having links to echelons of power was very active during the 2005 earthquake relief efforts. His commitment was not at all in doubt and all of us were in awe of the passion and hard work he put in to mobilize the [...]

As soon as I reached home, I heard my brother say, "President Zardari ko joota mara gaya!". Turning on  Geo TV, and waiting for the 11 pm news bulletin, I was surprised to see the reporting. Murtaza Ali Shah, who has been reporting sensationally the ongoing trip of the President to UK was telling his newscasters that "according to sources" a baba [...]

Disasters occur when communities and households substantially suffer from hazards, and the livelihood security is devastated provisionally or for a longer time. Multiple factors such as community vulnerability and the limited ability to reduce the potential negative impacts of hazards give birth to a disaster. The disasters can also be interpreted [...]

First published in The News Global warming is causing increasing alarm because the rising global temperatures have the power to alter monsoon rain patterns. The recent floods that engulfed northern Pakistan have, in a way, not just affirmed the threat of weather aberration, but also spelled out its consequences. According to UNICEF, around three [...]

  On his recent visit to India, British Prime Minister David Cameron callously displayed his inexperience as a leader and his inability to represent Britain at the international stage. In the great game where leaders from around the world unite to find common ground in defeating the enemy, Cameron turned out to be the “Saddam” of the [...]

Following David Cameron's statements in New Delhi last week, there were media reports that the DG ISI had cancelled his upcoming trip to the UK. The DG ISI was applauded for his patriotism. Here is just a small sample of media reports of the trip that had been supposedly cancelled due to extreme patriotism and "ghairat" of the DG ISI. [...]

Devastating flooding in northwestern Pakistan has now taken more than 1,400 lives and a left about 1 million people homeless. Although the government has announced it is stepping up relief efforts, it has been widely criticized for its slow and poorly coordinated response. The perceived failure of the government has opened new vistas for [...]

Published in Daily Times “The lowest form of popular culture — lack of information, misinformation, disinformation, and a contempt for the truth or the reality of most people’s lives — has overrun real journalism. Today, ordinary Americans are being stuffed with garbage” — Carl Bernstein, US journalist. Perhaps ordinary [...]

Apart from any kind of Political Difference "Human Life" is sacred! Today it was somebody else tomorrow it could be me. The life is long and completes its circle. Pakistani Intelligentsia should offer a Collective Funeral Prayers on Decency, Mercy, Consciousness and Compassion because not single TV Channel has stop its "Routine Musical [...]

Sayyed Raza Haider, MQM parliamentarian and member of Shia Community was killed with his gunmen in a mosque when he was doing Wuzu (ablution) to participate in a funeral of his friend's mother. The attackers shouted "Allah O Akbar" when started firing from sub machine guns and pistol. Raza tried to go inside the mosque for rescue but was brutally [...]

KARACHI: A Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) leader and a member of the Sindh Assembly, Raza Haider, and his security guard were gunned down by unidentified motorcyclists inside a mosque in the Nazimabad area on Monday. Life in the provincial capital was crippled following the incident, as at least 35 people were killed and more than 125 [...]

We as a nation are fixated with politicians and political parties. There are many holy cows in the country like the Armed Forces, Judiciary, Media big guns, some industrialists and many other professionals who are chosen to be ignored by our intelligentsia and “civil society”.  One reason for the deliberate ignorance can be that they belong [...]

Prophet Muhammad's Charter of Priviliges to Christians English Translation of the arabic text "This is a message from Muhammad ibn Abdullah, as a covenant to those who adopt Christianity, near and far, we are with them. Verily I, the servants, the helpers, and my followers defend them, because Christians are my citizens; and by Allah! I hold [...]

Pakistan has been struck by the worst monsoon floods in its history today. Balochistan and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa are the most-affected provinces with casualities more than 1000, tens of thousands left marooned, thousands displaced, hundreds stranded in unreachable places or gone missing, with many living under open skies without ven the basic [...]

From BBC The BBC's Aleem Maqbool says whole villages have been washed away Over 300 people have been killed in floods triggered by heavy monsoon rains in northern Pakistan, officials say. The Edhi Foundation - a privately run aid agency - says that 291 people have died in the last three days in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province. Officials [...]

LAHORE: The government will have no other option but to further raise sugar prices at Utility Stores in order to narrow the gap with the open market, to cope with the impending sugar crisis. Industry sources believe that the available stocks will last till September. Unless at least 350,000 tonnes of sugar is available by then the worst-ever [...]

PESHAWAR: Rivers burst their banks during monsoon rains, washing away streets, battering a dam and killing at least 110 people in most severe floods in decades in northwest Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, officials said Thursday. Hundreds of thousands more were stranded as rescue workers struggled to reach far-flung villages. In [...]

"Balochistan has a history of bearing the brunt of feudalism, the chameleionic political scenario and  the extreme natural calamities of flooding and drought, both which blow the remaing normalcy of life there into smithereens. Latterly, Southern Pakistan has been hit by a wave of torrential rains that have affected the lives of about 50,000 in [...]

This article is exclusively written for the LUBP by our valued reader and member of the Pakhtunkhwa Peace Forum (PPF) Shahid Ilyas. We are thankful to him for sharing his thoughts with us on this very important issue. (aliarqam) Nation-building or reconciliation between nationalities Far from being successful in building a “nation”, [...]

Published in The News By Makhdoom M Amin Fahim Afghanistan is a landlocked country and we are obliged to provide it with access to seaports under our international treaty obligations. Before I start writing on the issue, it would be appropriate to set in proper context the role of Pakistan for Afghan Transit Trade. Afghanistan has similar [...]

Which political party in Pakistan has taken most clear and most daring stance against extremist Deobandis of the Taliban and Sipah-e-Sahaba? ANP Which political party has offered most sacrifices in Pakistan's war on terror? ANP Which political leader in Pakistan has been most steadfast and straight forward in his condemnation of the [...]

Baloch nationalist leader Habib Jalib was not only a nationalist politician dedicated to Baloch cause, but also was the brain behind the ideology of Baloch nationalism. He was a leftist intellectual. Baloch nationalist leadership could be classified into two categories: one that believed in  centre-left nationalism and the second type was not [...]

I have not been very keenly following the matter of “massive losses” of Pakistan Steel and the alleged perpetrator of those losses. All fingers are pointed towards Riaz Laljee and a connection is somehow or the other made with President Zardari. The underlying tone of all news that is published on the matter by Jang Group is: Pakistan [...]

Find: Laila Ebadi Here is an evidence of how extremist Deobandis (terrorists of the Taliban and Sipah-e-Sahaba) are now attacking the very institution, i.e., the ISI, which once groomed and nurtured them. Yet, Generals Kayani and Pasha are unable to liberate themselves from the God forsaken good Taliban and strategic depth theories. In the [...]

For the last few weeks, I am experiencing mixed feelings of nostalgia, personal and collective loss, anger and frustration over the demise of Pakistan Railways under the able leadership of President Asif Zardari, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, and the Railways Minister Ghulam Ahmed Bilour. There is a long list of trains lost to our [...]