Mir Mohammad Ali Talpur

Last August 3,000 rock-drill operators of Lonomin platinum mine at Marikana demanding a wage raise stopped work; some miners opposed and this led to clashes. On August 12, the workers on strike infiltrated production areas and assaulted three on-duty employees, fatally wounded one and torched six motor vehicles. Between August 12 and 14 eight people, […]

The purported relief for Awaran’s quake affected people seems to be making no headway either on ground or paper as the nationalist Chief Minister Dr Malik and his mentors do not seem to be on same page. He appeals for international aid but his bosses refuse accepting aid with express purpose of punishing the people […]

Awaran, a place that already was suffering from shocks of long-drawn army and Frontier Corps operations in their effort to contain the brave and unflinching resistance that Dr Allah Nazar and the people there are putting up against their attempts to make people meekly submit to exploitation, was hit by a 7.8 magnitude earthquake on […]

During the recent ‘missing persons’ hearing in Quetta the Supreme Court (SC) Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry said that there is no proper checking in the city. The check posts manned by the Frontier Corps (FC), customs and police are just an ‘eyewash’; ‘hogwash’ would be more appropriate, and smuggling continues as […]

Víctor Lidio Jara Martínez was born in a poor peasant family near Santiago on September 28, 1932. Manuel Jara, his father, abandoned the family but his mother, Amanda Martínez, a self-taught folk musician, educated her children and endowed them with love for humanity. Jara’s mother died when he was 15 and after dabbling with a […]

Three weeks ago I received a mailed letter, which seemed odd as most communication these days takes place via the internet, the easiest though not the safest since Edward Snowden exposed the scope and depth of surveillance that the US National Security Agency (NSA) carries out. Mailed letters are not very private either. Muhammad Ali […]

I was amused to see Saddruddin Hashwani, head of Hashoo Group, assume the role of a statesman advising all to become more responsible and mature. I would have been surprised had not his uttering come to notice before. In this recent wide-ranging preposterous statement he advised political parties to cooperate for formulation of strategy to […]

After the recent attack on a train near Machh, Bolan, in which only the locomotive and the railway police compartments were targeted, Railways Minister Khwaja Saad Rafique, very bravely, said, “Militants should surrender otherwise the government will pay them (militants) in their own coin… we would respond with 10 rockets in response to one fired […]

Punjab, with Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz in power, plans to take over gas resources through amending Article 158, which states: “Priority of requirements of natural gas: The Province in which a well-head of natural gas is situated shall have precedence over other parts of Pakistan in meeting the requirements from that well-head, subject to the commitments […]

A neighbour intending to borrow a donkey went to the sardonic sage Mullah Nasruddin’s house. The mullah apologised, saying someone had already taken it. As the disappointed neighbour was leaving, Mullah’s donkey brayed stridently from the courtyard. He returned and said, “Nasruddin, you are being economical with the truth; it seems that your donkey has […]