The Battle for Pakistan on August 22, 2019The weakness of politicians to display a high caliber of leadership and to develop strong national institutions has been ascribed as one reason for military’s preponderance in the national decision-making The Battle For Pakistan: The Bitter US Friendship and a Tough Neighborhood is a new book written by Shuja Nawaz, an author and a distinguished […]
Our Kashmir options on August 14, 2019Our men have lost their spirit Our women have lost their smile, Our children have lost their laughter, The valley has lost its shine, Weep softly O mother For, we still have our pride. (Srividya Srinivasan) The real facts of Kashmir are not being highlighted. It is a far more complex issue than maudlin sentimentality […]
A Silent Revolution on August 10, 2019While the national attention is riveted on other issues a government department is silently ushering in a revolution in a field that is of existential concern to all and sundry. WAPDA’s current frays into water development with the requisite dynamism and celerity betoken a spirit which once made it a premier national development organization. They […]
India’s Kashmir Folly (Part-II) on August 5, 2019We certainly could have inflicted severe punishment upon Indian Lines of Communications from Naushehra northwards and were certainly in a position to advance easily a few miles from the Pandu over the hills towards Baramula.” Another military officer Major General Sher Ali Pataudi writes about the ceasefire in the same vein. As per him at […]
India’s Kashmir Folly (Part I) on August 5, 2019India is all set to colonize Kashmir. Having failed to integrate or pacify the Kashmiris the Indian imperialism’s most evil reincarnation, Modi Government is all set to ride roughshod over all United Nation resolutions and bilateral commitments enshrined in Simla Agreement. It is a government bitten by the rabid Hindutva virus that is walking pell […]
It Takes Two to Tango on August 1, 2019What is it in the South Asian DNA that so unfailingly elicits cynicism? Being a transit route for over millennia, for hordes of conquering tribes that swooped down from the heights and expanses of Central Asia and Middle East, the sub-continental temperament has been forged into an acquiescent mode ever ready to absorb and assimilate […]
Our Economic Options on July 26, 2019It’s the economy stupid, was the cri de coeur of the campaign strategist, James Carville of the Bill Clinton in 1992 who coined the term to highlight the centrality of the economy in the everyday life of the voters. Leaving everything aside this is the ultimate reality that impacts the lives of people, more than […]
How to win our Wild West on July 13, 2019“The Pashtun tribes are always engaged in private or public war. Every man is a warrior, a politician and a theologian. Every large house is a real feudal fortress….Every family cultivates its vendetta; every clan, its feud…. Nothing is ever forgotten and very few debts are left unpaid.” (Winston Churchill) The Americans won their Wild […]
Cricket and politics on July 7, 2019There are two teams out there. One is trying to play cricket and the other is not (Woodfull-Australian Cricket Captain 1932-33) Cricket being a gentlemanly game was never meant to be sullied by the barbs and jabs of dirty politics. On 30th June, on the sun dappled cricket greens of Birmingham an expectant crowd gathered […]
Economy and security on July 1, 2019Pakistan’s security and economy have jostled closely as conjoined twins right from the country’s inception as an independent state in 1947. Pakistani historians and scholars might cavil at Indian machinations to strangulate Pakistan economically, yet even Indian writers like Kamal Davar concede that “the unwillingness of Indian leaders, notably PM Jawaharlal Nehru and Home Minister […]