Pity and the privilege on March 31, 2021Pakistani society has many ills but the more significant one, perhaps, is the deep driven and widespread malaise of social acceptance of pity and the privilege under a false but profitable premise of the need to maintain a social equilibrium regardless of the grave misconduct or willful impingement mostly by the privileged. This ruse of […]
Its all Hot Air and Loud Noise on February 15, 2020We have had governments which have been corrupt, outright looters and terribly callous towards popular sentiment and miseries. We have seen rulers who were in love with their own voice, their picture and their weird ideas of society, religion, nationalism and the world at large. Some thought they were managing regional geostrategic landscape of the […]
India’s Millennium Malevolence — II on September 19, 2019Pakistan’s ill-considered drive to connect civilisationally with the Middle East created multiple illusions and disorientations of its own. Religion was wrongly equated with civilisation, leaving hardly any room for local cultural traditions and physical differences. Mosque podiums became the keepers of public morality and cultural correctness. The concept of ‘Ummah’ was forcefully propagated as an […]
India’s Millennium Malevolence: Part-I on September 19, 2019It has been for a long time since one has been interacting with Indian friends, readers, retired military officers from juniors to three-star, bureaucrats, former diplomats, ambassadors, journalists, businessmen, students, and others from many walks of life. Someone interacted with personally during international conferences and visits abroad, but mostly through the internet, email and social […]
Benevolence or Belligerence on September 15, 2019To be able to write with a passion one has to be swept by a powerful stimulus. It has to be a surge or a pulse that must continuously create sparks in one’s conscious mind. This could be triggered by incidence of an idea, a physical object of unusual impact, simply an inspiration or a […]
Fall of Dacca December 71: a different trauma on February 11, 2019With every passing year, mourning and angry commentary on the tragedy of December 1971 increases in Pakistan. Meanwhile, celebrations of victory also become more expansive, incriminating and ostentatious in India and accusations of manslaughter and abuses of human rights are hurled at us with greater venom from Bangladesh. Add to that the façade of war […]
With malice towards none on February 28, 2014Afghanistan as a country predates Pakistan geo-politically and historically. Pakistan is relatively a younger state. Unfortunately, there is lingering animus between the two which does not necessarily stem from state practices entirely of Pakistan’s making but has roots in history, which surfaced when the bitterness of a powerless loser during Sikh rule (1799-1849) was carried […]
Internal discourse in the army on May 20, 2011Raymond Davis and the Abbottabad raid may be hideous Siamese twins but perhaps they were overdue; not for the horrible way they killed but the way they demolished our self-esteem in a matter of three plus 40 minutes both put together. Our official reaction has been at best halting and less than resolute. This was […]
Chivalry and banditry on May 14, 2011The people belonging to the tribal belt that girdles Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the west live with an inexplicable mix of chivalry, banditry, personal liberty and tribal customs. It was 1985, I was commanding a unit in Kohat and we were travelling from Thal to Miranshah. I had ordered the regulation armed escort to stay put […]
From rage to retrospection on March 24, 2011The year 1972 was about to start. Agra Jail, where we were interned, appeared as if it were located in the middle of the city as there were old multi-storeyed houses and dilapidated looking hotels all around. The sounds and smells of the bazaar, blaring car horns and the heavy drone of bus engines could […]