Why linking Kashmir to Palestine is a smart move on December 14, 2017The Army chief played a strategic hand when he linked Palestine to Kashmir. That it came in the wake of reports of the US warning Islamabad to “play safe” in the aftermath of Trump Town’s Jerusalem shuffle – sent a strong signal to Washington as to who has the upper hand in the bilateral relationship. […]
Do they know it’s Christmas time? on December 9, 2017This school assembly was to be different. For it fell to our class to perform. Most of us usually pretended that this would be a tremendous bore. Though, in reality, there was always the hope that we could drag it out for as long as possible; especially if it meant cutting into double maths. But […]
Donald Trump — the world’s most dangerous man on December 8, 2017Donald Trump has certainly not forgotten the London Mayor’s standing firm against granting him a state visit to Britain. For while Sadiq Khan is here in Pakistan — the unquiet American president has ensured that the spotlight is firmly fixed on him in the wake of his Jerusalem shuffle. Talk about grudge-holding. Yet just as […]
Trumping the Palestinians on December 7, 2017Donald Trump has come a long way. Back in the summer, he seemingly didn’t realise that Israel was in the Middle East. Yet today, so confident is he of his cartographical prowess that he has decided to unilaterally relocate the capital of the Jewish state from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Not like that. Like this. […]
Yemen — and what it means for Pakistan on November 30, 2017Britain is at it again. And this time it is having a most excellent adventure in Saudi Arabia. Naturally, it is has come over all bashful. There is, after all, still such a thing as manufactured British reserve. Just as there is the persistently peddled myth of fighting for the underdog. But unless it is […]
Pakistan — welcome back to the future on November 28, 2017Gen (rtd) Pervez Musharraf has long considered himself an officer and a gentleman. And it seems that he has now finally got a break. For the Army wants him back. The people of Pakistan need him. Even Trump Town would do better with him at the helm. Or, at least this is likely how the […]
ICTY — goodbye and good riddance on November 26, 2017The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) has done what it said it would. And after doing business for nigh on close to quarter of a century — it will be shutting up shop at the year’s end. The last person to stand in its dock was Ratko Mladic, the former Bosnian Serbian […]
Revisiting the Balkans on November 25, 2017It happened a few months before I was to start at SOAS. I was back in Ilford and, for some reason, I found myself at the local Sainsbury’s to pick up a few groceries. This, after all, was before the cats had come on to the scene. Despite it being lunchtime and towards the end […]
The Boy with the Topknot on November 22, 2017It must have not been winter quite yet. For it was after school and there was still just enough light for my mother and I to take the dog for a walk. As we were making our way slowly round the park, which lay just two streets away from our home in Beechwood Gardens, Siby […]
Zimbabwe and western responsibility on November 18, 2017It seems that the Grand Old Man of Africa and Gucci Grace may have come to the end of the Zimbabwean road. President Robert Mugabe is the continent’s longest serving ruler; having been at the helm for close to 40 years. Indeed, he is the only leader his country has known since its independence from […]