Author Archive
Fatima Bhutto’s book : Fact or Fiction??: Dr Ayesha has never failed to impress me. She has rightly pointed out that BB was not a leader because of her father, she was a leader due to her own struggle. Murtaza Bhutto thought it was his right
Who if not Baitullah? By Amir Mir: The United Nations Inquiry Commission report into Bhutto’s murder has put Musharraf regime in the dock The three-member United Nations Inquiry Commission has almost absolved the slain Ameer of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) Commander Baitullah Mehsud of the Bhutto murder
A Reponse to Cold War Thinking in Today’s Afghanistan: Pretext A former USAID director from 1950s Afghanistan insists that the Taliban were and are a good option for Afghanistan, and Afghans can’t govern themselves. My Response: Really? So it was a good thing to imprison women, conduct ethnic
UN report….It’s just that our gods behave badly: Does anyone really think that anyone with a military title in front of their name is going to get persecuted? Though I am sure they will pass on the blame on to the people who drove the tankers that
Swat : Curfews, Checkposts and Target Killings: Two shot dead in Swat Tuesday, April 20, 2010 MINGORA: Two more members of a pro-government village defense committee were shot dead and three others including a woman were wounded by unknown gunmen in a series of target-killing incidents
Fishy business and barracudas: Wednesday, April 21, 2010 Anjum Niaz The story I relate stinks to high heavens because it’s so fishy. But the stink never reaches the public, thanks to the small fries who act as red herrings to divert the nation’s
JI still in a state of denial: Monday’s suicide bombing in Peshawar’s Qissa Khwani bazaar was an outrageous suicide attack that left some two dozen people dead and many more injured. The victims were mostly Jamaat-i-Islami supporters attending a rally. It is still not certain whether
Fear of Books: From Burning to Banning: Taking away a book is taking away freedom from others. Those that choose to challenge books choose to take away a freedom from others that they should have no control over. When we start talking about banning certain reading
سندھ کا ’سیکیولر‘ مدرسہ: ریاض سہیل بی بی سی اردو ڈاٹ کام کراچی ترقی اور تیزی کے ساتھ بدلتی سیاسی، سماجی اور معاشی صورتحال نے کراچی کے روشن ماضی کو دھندلا دیا ہے۔ برطانوی راج کے خلاف جب بھی تحریک چلیں، چاہے وہ
Unrest among Sindhis on 18th amendment: HYDERABAD: A group of civil society leaders has made quite a critical evaluation of 18th constitutional amendment bill and said that Sindh remained the major loser once again because neither the issue of provincial autonomy nor of natural resources
Ideology of Pakistan – this is what we are teaching our kids.: Photo Comments from Ali K Chishti FB Profile Some selected Comments on this by Pakistani and Indian friends Vj Shiraz ; damn wth is ths :s Ideology is set of ideas not a science of ideas :s Rakshi Rath
More Provinces debate…: Dangerous games Dawn Editorial Friday, 16 Apr, 2010 Tempers in Hazara appear to be cooling after several days of violence. A general strike was called off recently, businesses are reopening and leading politicians have visited the area, ostensibly to
Evolving campus politics – By Nadeem Paracha: In 1947 the only established student organisation in the newly created country of Pakistan was the Muslim Students Federation (MSF), the student-wing of the Muslim League. The Muslim League began to disintegrate as Pakistan’s first ruling party. Consequently, the
The Pakistani woman’s crusade against the system: By Sadef A. Kully Thursday, 15 Apr, 2010 KARACHI: Although, it has been twenty something odd years since Dr. Kauser Saeed Khan has been participating in and witnessing women protest for equal rights, there still seems to be some
Transparency International for check on Army procurements: By Usman Manzoor ISLAMABAD: Transparency International Pakistan (TIP) has written a daring letter to Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani asking him to direct the Defence Housing Authority (DHA) to implement the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority
Pakistan’s first ‘tarana’ by Jagan Nath Azad: Related post: Jagan Nath Azad did not write Pakistan’s first national anthem – by Dr Safdar Mehmood Cross Posted from Beena Sarwar’s Blog Complete version of the tarana by the Lahore-based poet Jagan Nath Azad, who was asked by
Whither civilian governance?: By Raza Rumi Cross Posted from Pakteahouse While the gurus of security and international affairs continue to unpack and make sense of the high-profile and much-hyped Pak-US ’strategic dialogue’, the people of Pakistan continue to ask questions about its
Get well soon, Altaf Hussain: Daily Times has, today, reported about MQM leader Altaf Hussain’s serious illness and the reason why he was not able to meet President Zardari during his last trip to London. According to another blog (Jazba), Altaf Hussain suffers from
Kasb e kamal kun, Key aziz e jahaan shwi: Pakistan, Afghanistan and the Army Unfortuntely, more dead people in the days to come. fortunately for some, also more cash….kasb e kamal kun, key aziz e jahaan shwi (Achieve excellence and you will be the beloved of the world)
Faith in democracy: A review of political parties of Pakistan – by Nadeem Paracha: An apt analysis by NFP of the political parties in Pakistan and their attributes and religious tendencies: Islam holds an important place in the workings of society and thus politics of Pakistan, a fact even some of the most
Some reflections on the by-polls: By Ali Arqam Durrani The recent by-election in Punjab and Pakhtoonkha are showing people’s moods, tendencies and their precedence. Elections were conducted on the same day in both the places D I Khan (PF-65) and Gujarat (PP-111). Here we
Jirga: Army must destroy Taliban: Political situations in Pakistan in general and Pukhtunkhawa province in particular were worst to extent that life here had become like hell for our people. Extremism and terrorism activities had increased manifold and militants had made the people of
Nowruz: The forgotten spring festival of subcontinent – by Shaheryar Ali: Related post: Nowruz in Parachinar, Pakistan – by Riaz Toori If one looks at the cultural history of Muslims in India, its hard to ignore the festival of Nowruz: The spring festival of Persia and central Asia which marks
We shall overrun: The young, urban, middle-class Pakistani’s manifesto – by Nadeem Paracha and Abbas Baloch: Related article: The Civil Society Bulletin – by Abbas Baloch As always, NFP at his best (Aliarqam) We shall overrun! Source: Dawn Blog 1. Asif Ali Zardari is the devil incarnate. 2. The Pakistan Army is the saviour. 3.
Zardari: The first ever President to donate his whole body for the cause of organ transplantation: President Zardari signs human organs transplant bill President Asif Ali Zardari on Wednesday became the first President to donate all his body organs, after signing a landmark bill to regulate transplant of human organs in the country. The President
Madrassah reforms : Does PPP want to nourish sectarianism?: Here is a well written piece about Madrassah reforms by Saiful Islam Khalid. I found this piece in a weekly newspaper from Islamabad. It was in paper print, which I have composed and edited to post it for LUBP
Keeping the army in check – by Irfan Hussain: Routine administrative issues like the grant of an extension in the service of the ISI chief becomes headline news. This preoccupation reflects the central role the army has come to occupy in Pakistan. As the major political player, it
Claims to uphold democracy and constitution – by Abdulkhaliq Azaad: In the name of justice, a few institutions and political factions are proclaiming themselves to be the upholders of constitutional continuity and democracy for some years now. Apparently, they are blowing trumpets against dictatorships, army’s political interference and are
Mian sahib’s political voyage Part1- by Aliarqam Durrani: میاں صاحب کا سیاسی سفر۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔علی ارقم درانی پچھلی رات میاں صاحب کے لاہور میں ایک انخابی جلسے میں تقریر کے بعد جب ان کی تقریر کے مندرجات ٹی وی چینلز کی اسکرین پر پٹیوں کی صورت چل رہے تھے۔اسی
The debate of national language: Famous Sindhi writer and Urdu columnist Amar Jaleel who recently appeared on Wussatullah’s show on Dawn News Urdu Service started a debate by saying that Jinnah was dragged or cornered into making the following speech, and somehow told Bengalis
The battle of the ‘commons’ and (de)militarizing the Sri Lankan society: This rather long article about presidential elections in Sri Lanka was published in the South Asia Citizens Web (SACW). It seems relevant to the political stuggle for democratization of Pakistan. Sri Lanka had a long fight against organized terrorism,
Deoband and Terrorism: The Ulema, Deoband and the (Many) Talibans By : S Akbar Zaidi Historical scholarship tends to see a continuity in the Ulema of south Asia – from the Deoband seminary in the 19th century down to the Taliban of
“Bonus season at the IMF” – Not institutions we destroyed: By Ahmad Nadeem Gehla Institutions of a state are always the first causality of dictatorship. Although dictatorships promote a feeling of ’stability’ which encourages the investor, the absence of institution soon takes away the fruits of stability. The house of cards built by
Soviet Lessons From Afghanistan – by Mikhail Gorbachev: A scene from the Red Army’s withdrawal from Afghanistan through the Uzbek town of Termez Picture Source Thanks: The New York Times Afghanistan is in turmoil, with tensions rising and people dying every day. Many of them — including
Laptop Warriors: After reading Ayaz Amir’s article and his use of the term “laptop warriors” (about Dr Shahid Masood, Ansar Abbasi etc), I googled the term and discovered this picture. Now Aitzaz Ahsan’s remarks have caused a major disappointment to them; he
The Roots of Articles 62 & 63: Extracts from Husain Haqqani’s Article Islamist Parties and Democracy Source: Journal of Democracy, July 2008, Volume 19, Number 3 More substantively, however, the potential or actual force of the Islamist legacy is bound up with the question of the
After the Bangladesh Model…: By Aliarqam Durrani The very much debated NRO and the SC judgment about it has clearly indicated the tendencies of our political class and the non political forces of a journey in the circle. Unfortunately biases and prejudices have
Some confusions about economic progress – by Ali Arqam (Articles by Nimer Ahmad): معاشی موشگافیوں سے جڑی کچھہ کنفیوژنز پاکستان میں آج جب کہ بی بی سی کے ایک نامہ نگار کے بقول ہر کوئی 23روپے خرچ کرکے ایک انگریزی اور ایک اردو اخبار خرید کر دانشور بن سکتا ہے۔اس جملے میں
President Zardari, Sindh Saga and the tele-scholars – by Ali Arqam: صدر زرداری، سندھ ساگا اور ٹیلی دانشور صدر زرداری کا حوالہ و تعارف چونکہ بھٹو لیگیسی کا تسلسل ہے اس لئے ان کی ذات سے جڑا ہر معاملہ اور ان کا کہا ہر لفظ متنازع بنا کر ان پر
Why Zardari?: It is not a secret…………Asif Ali Zardari is always a favourite target for the pro-establishment and pro-Taliban journalists and politicians; he is portrayed as responsible for all of the Government’s alleged failures. This is despite the fact that Prime