Dr Haider Shah

A decade ago, the US-led NATO forces entered Afghanistan to flush out the Taliban government and hence dismantle the headquarters of a deadly international terrorist movement. Amid fluctuating fortunes, President Obama saw both high and low points in the bloodstained melodrama of Afghanistan in the recent past. On May 2 this year, a beaming President […]

It is not the first time that the majestic London has seen its buildings on fire. In 1666, the Great Fire of London gutted almost 14,000 buildings in and around the city of London in just four days. Similarly, in the Second World War, London saw its buildings ablaze due to the Nazi aerial attacks. […]

Ever since the media in Pakistan started showing its newly developed teeth, we have seen a steady rise in the list of complainants. Ironically, the benefactor, General Musharraf, was the first victim of his own creation — the electronic media. Then came the turn of the Zardari-led government, which has not been very successful in […]

The manner in which new political outfits suddenly emerge on the eve of major turning points in the chequered political history of Pakistan reminds me of a joke I read in a children’s book. A servant was asked by his master to look after a big pot in which some food was being cooked while […]

Can a government be seen governing when in its first three years two finance ministers resign, two information ministers step down and one State Bank chief calls it a day? One does not need to be a political scientist to judge the level of governance when a government makes its own Secretary Establishment an officer […]

Capacity building is one of the most frequently used buzzwords of our public policy makers in Pakistan. It is an essential element of faith and you need to say it umpteen times to look progressive and educated. Starting with the notion of ‘institution building’ in the 1970s, the phrase became more common in the official […]

The commissionerate system has been restored and according to some media reports, workers of the PPP distributed sweets over this restoration. This development in particular, and the way our political parties deal with major reform initiatives in Pakistan in general, reminds me of the curse of Sisyphus. According to Greek mythology, as a punishment from […]

The recent address of Obama regarding the troops drawdown from Afghanistan has generated a renewed interest among many analysts dealing with Afghanistan. Their thoughtful analyses, however, create an impression that the shifting of emphasis from Afghanistan to Pakistan is perhaps a shift in the US strategy. The geo-strategic thinking of various policy making establishments of […]

In the previous part of this article, primary elements of Obama’s strategy on Afghanistan were analysed with the help of Bruce Riedel’s recently published book. A strategy is defined as answering three basic questions. Where are we, where do we want to go, and how do we get there? But in order to understand where […]

 “I have a dream,” harangued Martin Luther King Jr in his soft but determined and emotional voice on August 28, 1963, at the Lincoln Memorial, Washington DC in front of a charged crowd, “that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of […]