‘Newspaper Article’ Archives

Ours must be the most insecure country in the world, and the most paranoid. We are terrified not just by our nightmares but our very shadows. And judging by our behaviour we seem to think that the rest of the world has nothing else on its mind but how to undermine the Islamic Republic’s impregnable foundations. Husain Haqqani and Mansoor Ijaz [...]

  The rise of Imran Khan and memogate have enthused those who dream of a “reformed” democracy under the guiding hand of the army. A few days ago, I was planning to write about Imran Khan. Pakistan's most successful cricket captain and philanthropist had been trying to add “successful politician” to his resume since 1996, but after [...]

Because you have firsthand experience of how democracy and the people’s will is thwarted and corroded, you must be cognizant of the role you must play at this crucial time, as you have done in the service of the country over the past three-and-a-half years As leader of the second largest and main opposition party you must be aware of the heavy [...]

Source To, President Asif Ali Zardari President of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan And, Field Martial Avatar P Kayani The Supreme Leader, In-charge S Wing Father of the Nation Through the Good Offices of, Mr Mansoor Ijaz, Interlocutor to Admiral Mullen, President Obama and God. Dear Sirs, Please find enclosed my [...]

The Indian analyst who authored the following piece (SEE: India, Pakistan, and God’s geostrategic will) is probably giving an accurate assessment of his government’s opinion of the current status of the Pakistani military, even though both his opinion and the projected government position are probably miscalculations or misinterpretations of [...]

Its 2013 and by some unlikely miracle of sheer inqilabi (revolutionary) voting, Imran Khan has been elected prime minister and his party is in power. Wait a minute – what party? That’s right, a hefty gang full of loafers and bitter ex-politicians out for rival blood. Looking at those lining up to be given party tickets so far, the PTI [...]

Security is a concept that changes with the times, responding to systemic changes in human governance, priorities, technology, economy as well as sociology. The most important question is what you want to secure. A related question is defining the ‘what’ in the above question. Pakistan appears to be unable to respond to these issues. The [...]

Source: Foreign Policy Related posts: Memogate: Mullen throws Husain Haqqani under the bus  A critical analysis of Husain Haqqani vs Mansoor Ijaz saga Mansoor Ijaz saga: An example of media mismanagement by PPP   Pakistani Ambassador to the United States Husain Haqqani has become embroiled in a political scandal in Islamabad [...]

Source: Huffington Post A palace coup could be in the offing in nuclear-armed Pakistan as pro-Taliban army generals try to undermine democratically elected civilian government of President Asif Ali Zardari. First indications that something foul was afoot in Islamabad came on the weekend when Pakistan's top four military officials, [...]

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The Pir Chambal shrine strike in Pind Dadan Khan on November 12 by the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) should disturb Pakistan because of what it means in terms of the country’s capacity to fight al Qaeda. The LeJ is a sectarian (anti-Shia, anti-Iran) terrorist organisation closely aligned with al Qaeda, together with the Tehreek-e-Taliban and [...]

If one red US cent goes towards putting a US soldier in harm’s way, that does not reflect well on the US officials who had been cosying up to Imran Khan and had a meeting with him just before the Lahore rally In the wake of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) rally at Minar-e-Pakistan Lahore last month, a flurry of reports and opinions has [...]

The three cricketers are proven guilty and are thus criminals. They are shameless too. They never accepted their crime. Amir did confess, but only when it was too late and that too on the advice of his lawyer Now that corruption charges have been proved against Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif, and Mohammad Amir, some Pakistanis are doing what they [...]

The objective of this article is not to criticise the government, for that has been done ad nauseum by all and sundry. Neither do I intend to foment the movement to oust the government, for removing a sitting government is the exclusive prerogative of the parliament and the executive. The objective here is to recognise and appreciate the [...]

With the end of the Cold War, a new enemy emerged, Radical Islamic Fundamentalism, made up of Islamic extremists, terrorists and the states that support them. If we are to counter them at all, we must help to understand them as they understand themselves. In their worldview, they see themselves first as Muslims; as such, they are not loyal to [...]

Editor's Note: Curriculum reform is the need of the hour. In the last couple of days, 3 Pakistani Hindu doctors have been killed and Pakistan's peaceful, hardworking and patriotic Hindu, Christain and Ahmadi muslims face the brunt of violence and bigotry.  While this goes on unabated, the Baloch and Shia muslims also face frequent attacks. This [...]

The objective of this article is not to criticise the government, for that has been done ad nauseum by all and sundry. Neither do I intend to foment the movement to oust the government, for removing a sitting government is the exclusive prerogative of the parliament and the executive. The objective here is to recognise and appreciate the [...]

Source Pakistan’s greatest cricketing hero and second most successful philanthropist entered politics 15 years ago, promising a progressive, Islamic, modern, corruption-free Pakistan. His position as the most successful captain in Pakistan’s cricket history, the founder of Pakistan’s finest cancer hospital (providing free modern cancer [...]

A satirical song that takes a tongue-in-cheek swipe at religious extremism, militancy and contradictions in Pakistani society has become an instant hit here, drawing widespread attention as a rare voice of the country’s embattled liberals. The song, “Aalu Anday,” which means “Potatoes and Eggs,” comes from a group of three young men [...]

Lead singer of Beygairat Brigade, Ali Aftab, asks some tough questions about Imran Khan and the sinister role of Pakistani establishment behind his PTI. And here I am thinking, can PTI clean sweep the next elections? Do they even have candidates in Sindh, Balochistan or Southern Punjab for that matter? Is it going to remain the party of [...]

On the block by Nadeem Paracha In February I wrote an article on these pages called The blocked elite. Today after following all the excitement amongst the urban middle-class youth and in the populist electronic media about Imran Khan’s successful show in PML-N’s stronghold, Lahore, I believe the concept of the blocked elite needs a [...]

WHEN Imran Khan launched the Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf in 1996, then Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto rhetorically asked, “Can Imran win 51 per cent seats in parliament to form a government?” A decade and a half later, the same question haunts Mr Khan even when he has recently gathered together the largest public assembly of his entire political [...]

Business tycoons have ventured into this trade earning billions; terrorist organizations collect meat and hides, while at the bottom of the ladder, the Mullah and madrassa students get sufficient meat to eat The concept of sacrifice is an ancient one in human history. Man used to offer his precious commodities to the gods to win favours. Or [...]

Iftikhar Ahmed Jhagra, a former provincial minister, has joined Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on October 28, abandoning his long affiliation with the Pakistan People's Party (PPP). "The Imran Khan-led PTI is the only party that can bring peace and prosperity in the country and especially in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa," said Jhagra, an influential [...]

The characters: Dharna dude from Islamabad – loves X-box, facials, and PTI. Pathan from Peshawar – father died in a bomb blast, brother abducted by the Taliban. Dialogue ensues: Dharna dude: Hey Mr Pathan man! What kind of a Pathan are you? Don’t you know that Waziristan is under attack? Why didn’t you come to the [...]

As the former cricket captain Imran Khan stood before the cheering crowd in Lahore at his rally on Sunday, October 30, he promised that support for him would prove to be a tsunami, sweeping away all that he considers as political deadwood and garbage. In what appeared a carefully choreographed show, Imran Khan challenged his main political [...]

Six frontier regions and seven tribal agencies are contiguously lying with Khyber pukhtoonkhwa as follows. First are those tribal regions which are connected with district Peshawar. Second are the tribal areas connected with Kohat district. Third are those tribal areas that are connected with Bannu district. Forth are the tribal areas joint with [...]

Note: Pakistan is a country where Jihadi-sectarian terrorists such as Malik Ishaq, Hafiz Saeed, Qari Hussain etc are routinely acquitted, while tough sentences are reserved for poor labourers. On November 1, a protest demonstration and rally was held in Lahore by Labour Party Pakistan to denounce the 490 years of total jail sentences to the 6 [...]

By ERIC SCHMITT and DAVID E. SANGER WASHINGTON - Just a month after accusing Pakistan's spy agency of secretly supporting the Haqqani terrorist network, which has mounted attacks on Americans, the Obama administration is now relying on the same intelligence service to help organize and kick-start reconciliation talks aimed at ending the war in [...]

Kurram is a mixed Shia-Sunni agency in FATA. Despite occasional Shia-Sunni clashes, Kurram remained by and large a peaceful part of the British India state and later its successor, the Pakistani state. There are mainly two reasons for that. One, the state — British and Pakistani — never allowed individual Sunnis or Shias or their groups to [...]

ایک زرداری سب پر بھاری جوں جوں سینٹ کے الیکشن قریب آتے جارہے ہیں الیکٹرانک میڈیا میں جمہوریت کو ایک ناکام نظام ثابت کرنے کا پراپیگنڈہ شروع ہو گیا ہے۔ تقریباً ہر ٹاک شو کا موضوع حکومت کی ناکامی [...]

When I see the carping on Twitter, and various blogs and discussion boards and what have you, complaining about the holiday to mark the passing of Begum Nusrat Bhutto; or about the government flying journalists to Larkana to cover her funeral, I am further convinced that a whole lot of young Pakistanis simply do not know this country’s tortured [...]

The political history of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) has been one of relentless and unyielding struggle to restore democracy in Pakistan in the face of overwhelming resistance by the forces of tyranny and dictatorship. Though this history is rich with the stories of strong and courageous individuals, any history of the PPP, or that of [...]

Pakistan has been accused of playing a double game, acting as America's ally in public while secretly training and arming its enemy in Afghanistan according to US intelligence. In a prison cell on the outskirts of Kabul, the Afghan Intelligence Service is holding a young man who alleges he was recruited earlier this year by Pakistan's powerful [...]

Islamabad, Oct.24 (ANI): She had been ill since long. In fact after 1996, when her son was killed, none of us ever saw her or heard from her. Yet the news of Begum Nusrat Bhutto's passing away came as a devastating one. Begum Nusrat Bhutto, former first lady of Pakistan and former Chairperson of Pakistan Peoples Party was wife and mother to two [...]

Pakistan's media landscape has exploded over the last decade. But it is still the most dangerous place on earth to be a journalist and there are now calls for a strict code of conduct to protect the press and the public. Nosheen Abbas investigates the chaotic world of Pakistani journalism. In 2008 a colleague of mine was reporting from the [...]

My people want to live peacefully with their neighbours. My people are poor, their wishes and desires too little and they want to live as free men, not soldiers During my extensive travels in the Pashtun heartland after a long time, I developed a feeling that the Pashtuns feel seriously marginalised and are suffering from a severe [...]

Pakistan’s problems with violent extremism have eclipsed its historical role as a place with a tradition of tolerance. TODAY Peshawar in north-west Pakistan is a hotbed of insurgency and a strategic military entry point into Afghanistan. But more than 1,500 years ago the Gandhara region, which surrounded present-day Peshawar, was an [...]

A 12-year-old Christian girl's ordeal sheds further light on the plight of religious minorities. LAHORE, Pakistan — Human-rights activists in Pakistan and outside are aghast over the plight of a 12-year-old Christian girl who escaped the clutches of her Muslim abductor nine months later. Arif Masih, the father of the kidnapped girl [...]

Media Commission Pakistan held its second conference on 15th October in Islamabad on "attacks on journalists and media freedom". About 150 editors and leading journalists attended the conference. Following are excerpts from the declaration issued by the conference. The editors, senior journalists and civil society activists from across the [...]