Remembering minorities on August 11 on August 11, 2018National Minorities’ Day has been observed in Pakistan on August 11since 2009. This is because of efforts by the now deceased Minorities Minister, Shahbaz Bhatti, who advocated for reforms of the Pakistan’s controversial blasphemy laws. Two years later, in 2011, he was martyred as he left his Islamabad home. Two assassins sprayed the federal minister’s […]
Was it rigging or are people finally sick of corruption? on August 4, 2018The 2018 general elections have proven to be a watershed moment for the Pakistani people. Despite the outgoing Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government’s “honour the vote” slogan, and the insistence of deposed prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam Safdar that only the people could judge elected representatives, the people did not cast their […]
Chellakere — India’s secret nuclear city on July 29, 2018According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) India has a stockpile of more than a 100 warheads. Its desire to match the nuclear warhead capabilities of China and Pakistan has prompted Indian planners to invest in a top secret project of establishing a nuclear city at Chellakere, Karnataka. It had been exposed in […]
Indian Muslims in the extremist crosshairs on July 21, 2018Anti-Muslim sentiments have prevailed in India for quite some time. Since Muslims ruled India for centuries, a significant chunk of the Hindu majority bore a grudge against their erstwhile sovereigns. Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, with prescience, took cognizance of these anti-Muslim sentiments and endeavoured to create Pakistan, a separate homeland for Muslims. India is a […]
DRDO: A liability for India on July 14, 2018It is no secret that India aspires to be a regional power. However, ambition must be backed by responsibility.A spate of accidents in the sensitive Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO), have left Indians wondering whether its scientists can be trusted with weapons of mass destruction (WMDs). According to Indian media, on June 19 2018, […]
India: The water bully on July 7, 2018Pakistan signed the Indus Water Treaty (IWT) with India under the aegis of the World Bank (WB) in 1960 in good faith. Unfortunately, India has not kept its end of the bargain and has repeatedly violated the IWT and constructed numerous hydroelectric power (HEP) projects, which have infringed on Pakistan’s water rights. Pakistan has made […]
Erdogan’s pyrrhic victory on June 30, 2018Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, his Justice and Development (AK) party and their nationalist allies have won the 24 June 2018 elections by securing 52.6 percent of the votes cast. President Erdogan’s main rival, Muharrem Ince, was able to secure only 30.76 percent of the votes. The results preclude the requirement of a second round […]
Countering Daesh in Pakistan on June 23, 2018Daesh is the Arabic acronym for Islamic State of Iraq and Syria or ISIS. The terrorist group is known all over the world for the havoc it wreaked in Iraq and Syria. It is a Salafi Jihadist terrorist organisation that follows a fundamentalist, Wahabi doctrine of Sunni Islam. Daesh gained global prominence in early 2014 […]
SCO-from Shanghai to Qingdao on June 16, 2018The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), which just concluded its summit at the eve of 17 years of its formation in China’s progressive metropolis Qingdao, appears to have come of age. The Shanghai spirit continues to guide the SCO member states, which now include Pakistan and India as well. The need to establish cooperation institutions has […]
Water scarcity in Balochistan on June 9, 2018Today, the entire world faces an acute water shortage. According to some analysts, it is global warming which is to blame for this. There is a universal consensus that this catastrophe has been brought about because of the impact of humans on the environment. Sensible nations are adopting measures to conserve scarce water resources. Unfortunately, […]