Farooq Sumar

Given the number of participants and interested parties in the Afghan drama of the last 12 years, the amount of mistrust and duplicity between the so-called allies, and the divisions and factions within some countries, it is not difficult to see how complex and chaotic the situation has become when most actors are either secretly […]

Pakistan is at the unenviable crossroads where it has boxed itself in with grave crises on all sides, with no chance of escaping unscathed, particularly when our heads are buried in the sand, and sanity does not prevail. The result is more chaos and confusion. The painful effects of indecision are causing loss of innocent […]

“I came, I saw and I conked out” is what the Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif must have said several times during the first hundred days as a new bouncer of problems was hurled at him one after the other, and he seemed unable to maneuver his way out. We know that he is not adept […]

The United States claims to be the leader of the ‘Free World’ and the defender of democracy globally, but if you look at its record it is rather murky. It has allied itself with military and civilian dictatorships at the expense of democratic governments and supported countless overthrows of such governments. Its imperialistic aspirations have […]

Rape has existed since antiquity just as male domination over women has existed since time immemorial. It is present across all cultures, cuts across all religions and recognises no boundaries. The savagery of the rapist does not spare the victim whether it is a child or an old woman. Rape has been an instrument of […]

It is difficult to trust or believe in western journalists and analysts when it comes to the question of protecting western vested interests. There are a very few exceptions who try to be objective and even fewer who understand the various psyches of the east. The large majority is biased and a great number are […]

We are informed by Chaudary Nisar that momentous decisions are on the anvil for ending Karachi’s misery and restoring law and order to what has been the totally neglected single most important issue in the country for the last 30 years. Over the years, the problems have been deliberately complicated, the players have kept on […]

The prime minister’s (PM’s) address to the nation was a dour and uninspiring exercise, which provided no confidence to a fearful and traumatised populace yearning to be reassured; there were hardly any straws to clutch at. The people were informed in great detail of what they already knew regarding terrorism and power shortages, as if […]

Pakistan’s socio-economic and political decline along with uncontrolled violence has reached the stage where some are already using the phrase ‘failed state’ while others fear to utter it lest it comes true. Nothing much was done in the last two decades to rectify the mistakes and arrest the decline, as a matter of fact even […]

Hypocrisy, according to the Oxford dictionary, means ‘the assumption or postulation of moral standards to which one’s own behaviour does not conform’. Sounds familiar, does it not? Hypocrisy is the prevalent culture of our ruling classes (civil and military ), the upper class, the so-called ulema, the media bosses and senior media personnel, bureaucrats and […]