Syed Haider Raza Mehdi

This is not your father’s Taliban. I say this with cautious optimism, despite the Armageddon-like analysis and dire predictions emanating from many quarters. Here’s my view. The current crop of Taliban from their leaders to rank and file, have so far demonstrated amazing flexibility and diplomacy as they raced towards their relatively peaceful blitzkrieg such […]

Lately, I’ve stopped writing my regular OPED, given the extreme partisan single minded views generally expressed by readers and the absence of a pluralistic approach to a sane dialogue. Admittedly I do not subscribe to a ” on the one hand and on the other hand” type of journalist jugglerly to try and keep everyone […]

There are several dimensions to this issue, moral, legal as well as international, regional and Pakistani Geo-Political aspects and interests. Morally and legally, Israel is guilty of usurping Palestinian rights for nearly 80 years, wreaking havoc on innocent people, akin to Nazi’s disenfranchisement of Jews in Europe. Similarly, PM Modi, in India is following the […]

Now onto Maryam and Bilawal. 1. Both have never done a day’s decent work in their lives, achieved anything worthwhile, done any social work. That is a fact. 2. Neither has any right to party leadership roles other than the fact that they are the children of political leaders. That is a fact. 3. Maryam […]

President Trump and the USA election, has shown us among many other things, the power and effectiveness of lies and unsubstantiated fabrications, which when repeated over and over again by leaders, transform into a “partisan” version of the “truth”! In Pakistan a similar strategy of outright lies and untruths is being adopted by the political […]

First, a bit of historical context! At partition, our civilian institutions couldn’t develop as strongly as India’s because they inherited the entire institutional infrastructure of pre partition India, whilst we inherited broken remnants. We had to build everything afresh, except the military! A fundamental differentiating factor. Our political leadership, came predominantly from the Western part, […]

Gen. Zia, like Bhutto, was another enigma. On the surface he was a deeply religious figure. But lurking behind that disarming smile and humility lay an intelligent, cunning, machiavellian person. Perhaps the brightest of our 4 military dictators, he was also the most devious who could lie with the straightest of faces and the confidence […]

My apologies. Part 4 of “The Elite Capture – The Zia Years” will Insha Allah appear next week because of this week’s commentary on the Sugar Commission report made public yesterday. I’ve reviewed the report in as much detail as I could in the few hours between receiving it and writing this piece. I’ve also […]

I cannot impress enough the need to understand the factors and circumstances of our first 30 years. A period of self-centered naked power politics by our politicians, of brazen praetorianism by Ayub and Yahya leading to our dismemberment, followed by Bhutto’s attempted fascism disguised as socialism, ending in our third tragic military intervention under Zia! […]

For the last one week I watched my wife hooked to a Facebook Live site where this young Pakistani gentleman, sells women’s clothes (joras) and jewellery faster than the guy making pakoras and jalaybees just before Iftar. Fascinated, I saw this loud, a trifle brash but quite funny chap, rattling off styles, materials, sizes, colors, […]