Salman Tarik Kureshi

Turn on the TV and you will, again and again, hear media pundits, former ambassadors, expostulating politicos, retired generals, and other sundry analysts insisting, “This is not our war.” That over 35,000 Pakistani citizens have been blown up, shot and killed in a variety of dramatic ways, that Pakistan’s forces have been fighting pitched battles […]

The clamouring chorus of appeals to General Raheel Sharif not to think about retiring this year continues unabated. In the meantime, the general has had it announced that Operation Zarb-e-Azb, with which his name will always be linked, has now entered its final phase. Having achieved its objectives, or so it is implied, it will […]

In a recent piece in these pages, columnist Farman Nawaz averred: “Pakistan is fighting a war against terrorism without an ideology and that is the reason behind why Pakistan has still not been able to define its goals and those of its fight.” He suggested that we, the people of Pakistan, do not have an […]

In the last State of the Union address of his second term as US president, Barack Hussein Obama prognosticated, “Instability will continue for decades in many parts of the world…Some of these places may become safe havens for new terrorist networks, others will fall victim to ethnic conflict, or famine, feeding the next wave of […]

Another year stumbles towards its close. A better year than the last or a worse one? There are still two or three weeks to go, and much could yet happen. Age — and the bitter pills of experience — has bred in us a deep cynicism, which is itself a mask for pessimism. Our collective […]

The Turkish air force has now shot down a Russian warplane. Whose fault this may be is not the question. What is more to the point is whether this incident will result in a further widening of the extremely messy war going on in and around Syria. This particular war already involves Turkey and Russia […]

Readers who remember their high school history lessons (one must perforce exclude the sadly forsaken minds for whom history was replaced by Social Studies and then by Pakistan Studies) may recall the Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms of 1919. The ‘Montford’ Reforms, as they were dubbed, were introduced by Mr Edwin Montagu, the secretary of state for India, […]

In the agenda he announced for his hopefully-third-time-lucky government, the new prime minister’s focus was on some of the most immediate measures needed. Justifiably so. But there are also longer term imperatives that need at least a conceptual understanding. Core among these is the impending departure of US forces from the Afghanistan theatre. US governmental […]

Our democratically elected prime minister-designate has said there is “no harm in talking to the Taliban”, thereby signalling his intention of initiating a process of dialogue. Imran Khan, whose party the battle-weary people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have elected, has all along been a vociferous proponent of what he calls ‘negotiations’ with the militants and terrorists, […]

Following a judgment embellished with quotations from the Lebanese poet-philosopher, Khalil Gibran and the American jurist, Justice Louis Brandeis, we observe a fighting-fit prime minister clinging to office with all the legal means at his disposal. Around him and the Supreme Court that has sentenced him, there is a din of debate and argument, much […]