Shaukat Qadir

Only India has greater number of ethnically motivated freedom movements than we do. From our very inception, the accession of Balochistan was considered questionable by some. Later, in the 1970s, Balochistan hosted an insurgency, and more recently, an insurgent movement that has still not ended completely. In this regard, recent efforts towards the development of […]

Leprechauns are fictional creatures from Irish folklore; also referred to as ‘little men’. These creatures are usually depicted as little men in long coats and high hats. They are reputed to live underground. Since the Underworld is symbolic with Hades which, in Greek mythology, is the abode of the dead, Leprechauns are also associated with […]

The Scarlet Pimpernel was the title of a play, later published as a book, written by Baroness Orczy at the turn of the twentieth century, and was a huge success. Set in the period known as The Reign of Terror in France, which followed the French Revolution, it is based on the adventures of a […]

I gather from the media that, in dismissing the petition seeking Nawaz Sharif’s indictment for contempt, the Supreme Court (SC) Bench commented that individuals had the right to comment on judgments so long as they were not ‘disrespectful’. I hope my comments also fall in that category, since I subscribe to the view that there […]

In the last Senate elections, things didn’t go quite as well as expected. The PML-N was expected to win a far greater number of seats than it did and, while it has the largest representation in the upper house, it does not have what it was jockeying for; enough seats to be the ‘spoiler’ in […]

When I read the news that more Pakistani troops were headed for Saudi Arabia (KSA), I must admit, I was extremely disappointed. To add insult to injury — the announcement was made by a military spokesman.I had long hoped that Pakistan would reconsider its foreign policy; unfortunately, this move indicates that nothing of the sort […]

I am no expert at anything but, I try to understand everything I come across. Among the subjects I know almost nothing of is Climate Change due to degrading environment. So, when I learned of a seminar, followed by an In House Discussion at the NDU on this subject, I went there eagerly, to learn. […]

The world is really changing. In these times of suo motus and a judiciary which deems itself insulted so frequently that each transgression deserves to be tried for contempt, all criticism of the judiciary has to be carefully worded. Now the Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) has even ruled that in response to public criticism, […]

Recently, the Afghan interior minister, accompanied by the Afghan Spy Master, visited Islamabad on an unscheduled visit, to discuss common security concerns. Not only do we share a long border with Afghanistan, we share ethnicities and both countries suffer from the same problems, created for the same reasons. But most importantly, our future is intertwined. […]

A tale commonly told in our childhood was about a brilliant student, H, of extremely humble background, who was weak in English. Another student, a few years senior, took him under his wing to tutor. H’s progress was remarkable but he was still weak in essay composition. In a mock exam before he sat for […]