Farooq Bajwa begins his retelling of the 1965 war by detailing five political compulsions in the country that made war inevitable. He then follows this up with a narration of the war’s military operations, and concludes with psychoanalysis of the major actors in Pakistan, who believed that victory was guaranteed. According to Bajwa, the story […]
Ayub and the 1965 war
The omission of the 1965 War is very curious since millions think Ayub led Pakistan to victory. Ayub, a graduate of the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst, was a brigadier in the British Indian Army when Pakistan gained independence. In 1951, Prime Minister, Liaquat Ali Khan appointed him as the first Pakistani commander-in-chief of the […]
‘Pakistan at the Helm’: India’s Devasher evaluates Pakistan’s leaders
Tilak Devasher has written an evaluation of all the major leaders, beginning with Jinnah and concluding with Musharraf. Some Pakistanis may approach the book, Pakistan: At the Helm with apprehension since the author was a cabinet secretary in India. They will be pleased to find out that his assessment contains no rancor or ill will. […]
Why did Operation Mailed Fist fail?
A mythology has evolved around the performance of the first Armoured Division — the Mailed Fist — in the 1965, war with India. In popular history, Gen. Muhammad Musa, the army’s commander-in-chief, is standing victoriously on the platform of the Indian train station at Khem Karan. But Khem Karan was just the first step, not […]
A walk along Hawaii’s Waikiki beach
While walking in their carefully manicured Shalimar gardens, the Mughal emperors would often be moved to say, “If there be paradise on earth, this is it.” If you were to walk along the beaches of Hawaii, you might be moved to make the same statement. Of the many beaches in the islands, the most prominent […]
What the Prime Minister missed in his speech
In his maiden speech to the nation, Imran Khan focused on a variety of social, cultural and economic problems facing the country. He talked about the need to get rid of corruption, poverty, illiteracy, dependency on foreign loans, and the budget deficit. He also referred to the need to end the lavish style of the […]
Being Christian in Pakistan
In his novel, The Golden Legend, Nadeem Aslam has written a searing commentary on the state of Christians in Pakistan. According to Wiki, he was born in Gujranwala and moved with his father to the UK when he was 14. His father, a communist, fled Zia’s regime and settled in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire. After studying […]
Remembering Gen Zia-ul-Haq
General Zia died in a plane crash on August 17, three months after the Soviets pulled out of Afghanistan. On deposing the former prime minister, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto,on July 5 1977, Zia had famously declared,“The Army takeover is never a pleasant act,the country should remain in the hands of the representatives of the people who […]
Indo-Pakistan ties under Imran Khan
The incoming Prime Minister (PM)has claimed that he knows India well, since he travelled widely in that country during his storied cricketing career. He certainly has no shortage of fans across the border. They include cricket greats, such as Kapil Dev and Sunil Gavaskar. In his speech, Imran expressed interest in opening trade with India […]
Why did Operation Gibraltar fail?
On the night of August 5 in 1965, the Pakistan army launched Operation Gibraltar. Named grandiosely after the conquest of Spain by the Moroccan general, Tariq bin Ziad, the Pakistani operation failed spectacularly. Gibraltar was supposed to finish the mission that had begun in October 1947 to ‘liberate’ Jammu and Kashmir from India. That mission […]