Pakistan’s Nuclear Program and Environmental Safety
By Behzad Taimur There is no other way to begin an article on Pakistan’s nuclear program and environmental safety than to begin directly, with no tamheed, as it is called in Urdu: whereas public discourse about Pakistan’s nuclear program has focused on its growing capabilities and the possibility of some of its elements falling into terrorists’ hands, discourse on the nuclear program and its possible negative impact on Pakistan’s environment has remained largely absent from public … Read entire article »
Filed under: Army, Environment, Regulatory Affairs
Bangladesh’s Independence Day
For an ordinary student of History, it is puzzling to know that Bangladesh does not celebrate its Independence day on the day that it seceded from Pakistan i.e. 16th December and instead on 25th March. This was the day when Operation Searchlight was started by Pakistan Army against its own citizens and Army’s proxies Al-Shams and Al-Badr played their own ugly part in it. Bengalis chose to commemorate the martyrs of Operation Searchlight and chose March 25th as the Independence … Read entire article »
Filed under: Anniversery, Army, Bangladesh, Elections, History, India, movements, Pakistan
Tale of Musharraf’s Coup in 1999
Parvez Musharraf, ex-Dictator, landed in Karachi today, amid much fanfare(and while wearing a suicide jacket). He was ousted democratically on 18th August, 2008 and left the country. Pakistan has successfully completed transition from an elected government to a caretaker setup without direct intervention of the Military for the first time in its history. This does not mean we forget the history of military interventions and the disastrous consequences. To commemorate the arrival of Musharraf, we … Read entire article »
Filed under: Anniversery, Army, Civil Service, Constitution, Democracy, drama, History, ISI, Islamabad, Pakistan, Politics, Society, state, Uncategorized
Article of the Day: Leave it to Allah
by Muhammad Shehzad [Excerpts] A new trend was noticeable in the recent sectarian attacks in the country. Earlier, the target was primarily the Asna Ashri Shias(followers of the 12 Imams). Now, however, the scope is widening. The Asna Ashris are a powerful community in Pakistan. Like their Deobandi rivals-whose proteges include the now defunct militant Sipah Sahaba Pakistan and the Lashkar e Jhangvi-the Asna Ashri have the Sipah Mohammad. In the late ‘90s and early 2000, the … Read entire article »
Filed under: Army, baluchistan, Citizens, History, human rights, Identity, Iran, ISI, Islam, Islamabad, Karachi, Lahore, minorities, Pakistan
Our Educated White Collar Class, Qadri Freak Show and Democracy
Raza Habib Raja I remember watching a standup comedy by Bill Maher who I think is one of the wittiest political satirists. One of his normal practice is to mock Americans, particularly, the Republicans for their dumbness. At one point he said, “ Oh America, I can never leave you, you amuse me.” Well If Mr. Maher was to visit Pakistan, I am sure he would immediately understand that for entertainment purpose, nothing even comes close to Pakistan. Imagine this: A Mullah with dubious credentials materializes out of nowhere and asks his followers to march to Islamabad to force dissolution of all the governments and formation of a caretaker government who would first cleanse the system. He apparently has the financial as well as logistical backing. And he further complicates the situation by presenting … Read entire article »
Filed under: Army, Democracy, Elections, Islamabad, Judiciary, Parliament
The Dwindling Hope and the Case for Military Action
Raza Habib Raja Terrorism has again struck Shiites in Quetta killing many people. As I write these sentences, the targeted Hazaras who have witnessed massacre over the past many years, are refusing to bury the bodies and demanding direct military rule in Quetta. This is the lowest Pakistan can get where the state has become so dysfunctional that people actually start wanting direct military rule. In the rest of the Pakistan, there have been sporadic protests … Read entire article »
Bilawal Bhutto’s speech and why I will Vote for PPP
Raza Habib Raja Let me be clear: I don’t like legacy politics. However, I do understand that in the context of South Asian politics, it is perhaps the only way for the political parties to survive. So when Bilawal was launched, I had mixed feelings. Knowing that PPP has a consistent vote bank and the internal culture of the party is such that if anyone drawing direct lineage from Bhutto is made the leader, … Read entire article »
Filed under: Army, Benazir Bhutto, Democracy, dynasties, Egalitarian Pakistan, Elections, Liberal Democratic Pakistan
Khaki Games
By Saad Hafiz: It is evident from recent events that the Pakistan military has never accepted the concept of civilian control. Historically, the generals have maintained a consistent attitude that civilian leaders are, at best, temporary office holders to be outmanueuvred or outlasted. Civilian governments have been focused on the possibility of coups and the challenges of keeping the military in the barracks. The country’s founders, preoccupied with nation survival, could not foresee the threat to civilian control of the military. Large military forces were not viewed as a danger to liberty; surprising, as that was a legacy of the British colonial period and the army’s occupation. Military forces were not seen as a risk to a nascent democracy. This allowed the establishment of an aristocratic and autocratic military class, which prevailed … Read entire article »
Filed under: Army
Irrational Patriotism and Pakistan
Raza Habib Raja In Pakistan, watching the media talk shows can be an enlightening and in fact entertaining experience. The “pearls” of wisdom uttered in these talk shows are a testimony to the intellectual orientation of the hosts, participants and unfortunately even the regular viewers who have become addicted to this Pakistani version of Indian soap operas. Like Indian soap operas, these talk shows aim to create melodrama, controversy and try their level … Read entire article »
Filed under: Army, Education, FATA, Taliban, Terrorism, Uncategorized, USA
A Battle of Ideas
by Abdul Majeed Abid “When I knew that they were burning our schools, I thought they were burning education, they were burning books. I have to be educated. I’ll be educated no matter what the odds.” Malala Yousafzai Last Week’s attack on Malala Yousafzai, a 14 year old beacon of hope from Swat, garnered all sorts of reactions. Most people were shocked by the brutality of the perpetrators. The timing of that attack, in my opinion, was an extremely unfortunate one as it co-incided with the ending of PTI’s “Peace March” towards Waziristan. Attack on Malala has been construed as a stepping stone to military operation in Waziristan, a primer that turns public opinion towards a certain tilt. Conspiracy theories have been spun at an alarming pace about involvement of various Intelligence Agencies … Read entire article »
Filed under: Afghanistan, Al Qaeda, Army, Democracy, Education, FATA, Islam, Islamism, Pakistan, Religion, Society, Taliban, Terrorism, USA, violence, Women
Staying the constitutional course
By Saad Hafiz: Pakistan’s troubled history has been dominated by power-hungry generals and mostly corrupt and incompetent politicians supported by a cast of cunning bureaucrats, pliant judges, invisible spooks, political fixers and middlemen, and biddable media persons. These well known ‘pantheon of villains’ thrived in an arbitrarily divided country where unrelated areas and peoples were just illogically and hurriedly joined together. They were helped by the framework of colonial laws and institutions which the country inherited … Read entire article »
Filed under: Army, Constitution, Gillani
How Trolls are confounding the Shia Rights Discourse
by Abdul Majeed An article recently published in a notorious blog went on to criticize The Friday Times, Raza Rumi, Saleem Javed, Khaled Ahmad and Ali Chishti,because they dared to use the word “sectarian killings” instead of “Shia genocide” which is the term favored by the author of that post. The article also posited that there is a systemic genocide committed against Shias and that the #DeepState is somehow promoting it. The author did not specify exactly what benefit the #DeepState gets if they are actually complicit, when all it does is to actually compromise and damage its own writ and control. The article wanted us to believe that “Sectarian Violence/Genocide” is being “mis-represented” as a Proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran. The article mentioned the plight of the Hazara … Read entire article »
Filed under: Al Qaeda, Army, baluchistan, Citizens, Democracy, Iran, Islam, Media, Pakistan, quetta, Religion, Society, Taliban, Uncategorized, USA
It Got Worse
And then, somehow, it got worse. — Common Russian Joke, when asked to sum up their country’s history. By Zia Ahmad At the fag end of summer this year, it was not uncommon to hear self pitying murmurs bemoaning the spectacular assembly of disasters, both manmade and natural, that has been a fixture on print and TV. The only cause for the indiscriminate body count in Karachi, the dengue outbreak and the devastating flood among other countrywide misfortunes, large and small according to these self pitying murmurs was nothing more than we had it coming since this is only but divine retribution for our misdeeds, the proverbial hamaray amaal ka nateeja. The same mantra was heard in the wake of the 2005 earthquake and a pitch perfect echo from last year’s torrential misfortunes. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Army, Uncategorized
The Apologists Blindly March Forth
By Zia Ahmad The Nation has always been a bit of an oddity amongst the English language in Pakistan. A sister concern of the vehemently conservative Urdu daily Nawa-e-Waqt, The Nation has inherited the responsibility to play the custodian of the Two Nation Theory for the English paper readership in Pakistan. Apparently 1971 never happened In Nawa-e-Waqt’s version of history. … Read entire article »
Will the civilians seize the moment?
It is too early to determine whether Nawaz Sharif is seeking a structural transformation of Pakistan’s governance culture or is merely hankering for acceptability within the power matrix. By Raza Rumi: Pakistan’s civil-military imbalance is now embedded in the very nature of the Pakistani state and the way it works. The “idea” of Pakistan has evolved into a wide-ranging and somewhat irreversible militarisation that has penetrated into the society, economy and the very imagination of Pakistan. Prima facie, there is a Constitution at work with civilian institutions that come and go as side characters on the grand political theatre of Pakistan. However, as they say, societies are dynamic entities and evolve over time. Since the 1971 defeat of the Pakistan Army in East Pakistan, the trajectory of military supremacy was quite consistent. It is a separate matter that the 1971 moment arrived amid a … Read entire article »
Recent Comments