Search Results for *talibanisation*
August 14, 2012
Cover Story: Salaam Pakistan
Sixty-five and alive. Dismembered before your 25th birthday, but alive. Fragmented by sectarian and ethnic strife, by an escalating conflict between the pillars of the state, by targeted assassinations and turf wars between political party cadres and score-settling desperados from…
July 28, 2012
Indo-Pak Relations: IEDs, Stones and Dialogue
With Pakistan’s new foreign minister’s arrival in New Delhi, there was much talk on blogs and chat forums, and undoubtedly around office water coolers also, about the 34-year-old's elegant looks and overpriced handbag. Of course, instead of talking about the…
June 21, 2012
Balochistan: The Writing on the Wall
I sit listening to Farzana Majeed. Her story is heart-rending but not unfamiliar. It follows the pattern of many we have heard and will hear in the coming hours. Her 27-year-old brother, Zakir Majeed Baloch, a senior office holder of…
April 18, 2012
Unholy Vows
On April 18, Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry ruled that the three Hindu women who had been converted to Islam, Rinkel Kumari, Dr Lata Kumari and Aasha Kumari, should decide if they want to return to their parents or stay…
October 21, 2011
Bringing Solutions to the Table in Afghanistan
If you are a journalist or a political commentator, you are certain to get frantic calls from friends and family inquiring whether there will be a war between Pakistan and the US. The recent increase in tension between Pakistan and…
January 5, 2011
Pakistani Writers and Bloggers React to Salmaan Taseer’s Death
In the hours that passed after the murder of Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer, there were many people who shamefully celebrated his death. Disrespectful Facebook pages were created, while pictures of the murderer carried the disturbing title: "Salute to the Greatness…
November 29, 2010
Interview: Shahi Syed, ANP President in Sindh
“We are not at war with the Mohajirs — just the party that claims to represent them” - Shahi Syed Q: Your party is in a coalition government with the PPP and MQM, but the battle lines between the…
November 12, 2009
Secession or Reconciliation?
Except for some sensational news items, such as resistance to hoisting the Pakistan flag and playing the national anthem on August 14 or the killing of some prominent people, media coverage of Balochistan is sketchy, distorted and often misleading. It…
September 9, 2009
Terror’s Training Ground
A few years ago, I met some young boys from my village near Bahawalpur who were preparing to go on jihad. They smirked politely when I asked them to close their eyes and imagine their future. “We can tell you…
August 28, 2009
The Exodus
She calls it the U-Trip. Setting out from Karachi, 15-year-old Rosheen Birdie plans on visiting every major hub of Zoroastrians in the world, just so she can find one to marry. It’s not so easy to locate a ‘match’ in…