Dr Mohammad Taqi

“How, think you, will the Mohurrum go this year? I think that there will be trouble” — On the City Wall, Rudyard Kipling, 1888. This Moharram was one of those, after many years, in which there was trouble. The tragic turn of events this past Ashura day in Rawalpindi overshadowed an otherwise peaceful mourning season […]

A tiff has erupted between the Pakistan army and its best men of several decades’ standing. The emir of the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), Mr Syed Munawar Hasan, ruffled quite a few feathers with his callous remarks about martyrdom last week. Mr Hasan not only called the slain Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) ringleader Hakeemullah Mehsud a shaheed — […]

It is rare that a country’s top leaders are seen virtually bawling over the death of its enemy number one. But Pakistan’s Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan and the chief of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) Mr Imran Khan did pull that off. The two leaders have led the national wailing over the killing of Hakeemullah […]

Almost two years to the day he stepped down as Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States, Mr Husain Haqqani is back with an academic bang. His new book, Magnificent Delusions: Pakistan, the United Sates, and an Epic History of Misunderstanding was shipped by the retailers a good two weeks before the planned release date. The […]

The so-called stakeholders struck again last week. A suicide bomber killed the law minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Mr Israrullah Khan Gandapur. The minister, a decent young man from all accounts, was exchanging Eid greetings with the visitors at his house in his native Kulachi. The official response of the provincial ruling party, the Pakistan […]

The Chief of Army Staff, General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani did the right thing, albeit three years late. After accepting an additional three-year term back in 2010 the general has opted to hang his hat up, putting an end to the speculations about yet another extension. The political forces might have gone along with extending his […]

Peshawar — one of the oldest living cities on earth — is the heart of the Pashtun lands from Kandahar to Khyber and the Qissa Khwani bazar is the heart of this city. My hapless city was stabbed through its very heart when the jihadist terror struck again this past weekend, leaving at least 40 […]

Terror unleashed on yet another bloody Sunday in Pakistan and yet another round of apologetics for the mass murderers ensued. My city, Peshawar, has grown used to the death inflicted on it consistently by the religious zealots. But even by Peshawar standards the havoc unleashed this September 22 is particularly brutal as it targeted one […]

The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has claimed the killing of Major General Sanaullah Khan, GOC Swat Division, along with Lt-Colonel Tauseef and Lance Naik Irfan Sattar in an IED bombing in Upper Dir on Sunday. In a statement released a day after the attack, General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani said that while peace must be given a […]

With Mr Asif Ali Zardari passing on the presidential baton to Mr Mamnoon Hussain, Pakistan completed the first full democratic transition in its history. Mr Zardari presided over the country and his Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) in perhaps the most turbulent times in the history of both since 1971. Seen at his martyred wife Benazir […]