Syed Rashid Munir

Last week, the uneasy Pakistani government received a much-needed vote of confidence at a crucial time from perhaps its only-remaining ally, regional or otherwise. At a time when US money has already stopped flowing owing to inconsistent loyalties and when our self-styled brethren in the Middle East and the Gulf are wielding fiery sticks instead […]

Just as the invention of the printing press heralded a new era of improved access to information in centuries past, the dawn of the internet age was also a huge milestone of contemporary times. In both cases, rigidly controlled networks of information transformed into more or less democratised ones that, over time, brought the general […]

In a rare glimpse of what diplomacy can achieve when it is exercised with much gusto, the world saw Iran successfully limit (read legitimise) its nuclear capabilities last week. After marathon negotiations that tested not only the wits but also the physiological limits of the participants, Iran was able to reach a deal with the […]

The tensions between the ruling regime and the rebels in Yemen had been slowly simmering away but now they have reached boiling point and the consequent civil war that has erupted is bound to have deep regional and international repercussions. The Houthi rebels, known as Ansar Allah, started their insurgency in 2004 against the regime […]

In one-way or another, we are all storytellers. A few take the profession too literally, but most of us suffice with composing our life experiences, which then transform into stories of our own beings. The process starts as early as from the cradle and the bug stays with us right into our old age. But […]

“The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled,” observedPlutarch, the Greek historian and biographer. True to this spirit of learning, the Greeks laid the foundation of the modern academy, a place where the passions of enquiry could be evoked in yearning minds. To this day, the basic design […]

After the school attack in Peshawar last year, it seemed for a while that we had at long last realised what was wrong in our conduct, and we would at least start trying to mend our ways. And try we did: military courts with blanket powers, enhanced counterterrorism operations across Pakistan, more security barriers than […]

Any hopes that one might have had about this year being a better one for us than the last have been quelled in just the first couple of weeks. In the face of our nascent counter-terror resolve, the other side is equally determined to take this fight to the very last round. So, just as […]

Much ado has been made in Pakistan and elsewhere about the recent visit of US President Barack Obama to India, and for good reasons. Apart from the by now famous hug between Modi and Obama, a number of agreements for cooperation in nuclear trade, defence, security, space and other advanced technologies were signed during the […]