A review of ‘Warriors after the War’ on January 2, 2023In his History of the Peloponnesian War, Thucydides makes several observations about waging, winning, or losing a war. The strong do not wage war because they are strong, since they know that their very strength can push them into errors that are not the makings of their enemies. Thus, he posted an important dictum in […]
A nuclear holocaust in South Asia on January 11, 2020A nuclear war between Pakistan and India has been talked about, referred to and discussed by many people and at many forums. It is believed that some intelligence quarters in the United States have even simulated such a scenario and predicted many deaths. However, Safdar Zaidi has a different take on it. He is a […]
Whence comes ‘Kashmir will become Pakistan’? on August 15, 2019Now after India has revoked the special status of Jammu and Kashmir, the Kashmir Banega Pakistan slogan is back with a vengeance on Pakistan media It was Sardar Sikandar Hayat Khan who first popularised the slogan ‘Kashmir Banega Pakistan'(Kashmir will become Pakistan) soon after Benazir Bhutto took over as Pakistan’s prime minister in 1988. A […]
Christchurch massacre: banality of noble intent on April 13, 2019“I want to stand between him and anybody he might be pointing it at,” said a white New Zealander who wore a hajib on 22 March, the Hijab Day celebrated throughout New Zealand. By “him” and “it” she meant a shooter who might want to kill a hijab-wearing Muslim woman and the hijab, respectively. Justifying […]
Media whiz kids of the security state on May 18, 2012In his Distant Voices (1994), John Pilger narrates how a Soviet intellectual got the shock of his journalistic life during his visit to the US in the mid-1980s. He spent a few days in New York studying American print and electronic media. He concluded: in the Soviet Union we suppress media to block divergent ideas. […]
Is Balochistan going the East Pakistan way? on May 7, 2012I have just finished reading my good friend Mir Mohammad Ali Talpur’s article, “Platitudes palmed off as justice” (Daily Times, April 29, 2012). After reading the facts he has given and the interpretation he has made of those facts, only a simpleton will say that there will ever be justice for the Baloch people. Talpur […]
Punjabi fascination with grass on April 23, 2012Have you ever wondered why Masood Khan Rangeela (1937–2005) ruled the hearts and souls of generations of Punjabis? Rangeela, a Pathan, came all the way from Peshawar and within months, he was the comedy king of Punjabi movies. He enthralled Punjabi spectators not through his witty or snide remarks (for that Munawar Zarif was the […]
Hajj concludes peacefully with bloody batons on November 15, 2011According to AFP and SPA news agencies, Saudi Crown Prince Nayef bin Abdel Aziz has hailed the ‘success’ of this year’s hajj “despite the risk of chaos feared in the wake of the Arab Spring”. He especially referred to “some pilgrims” (read Iranian/Shia), who he said had planned to “exploit the international and regional changes […]
Criminal cricketers and their accomplices on November 4, 2011Now that corruption charges have been proved against Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif, and Mohammad Amir, some Pakistanis are doing what they always do: lie, deny, invoke God, and claim conspiracy theories. Salman Butt’s family members have claimed that Butt is an innocent man and has fallen prey to an international conspiracy, the English judge is […]
For Gods sake! on June 14, 2011In March 1977, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto spoke to the people of Lahore for the last time. National elections were only days away. He spoke to the people in the backdrop of a vicious one-point propaganda that his Islamist-opponents of the Pakistan National Alliance (PNA) had been spreading against him day and night: “Bhutto drinks alcohol!” […]