Baton wielding protesters, emotionally charged crowds, struggling law enforcement agencies, scared and inconvenienced normal-day individuals, impending signs of causalities welcome to another saga of surrender of the state to the group it had recently declared a terrorist outfit! Lest we forget, this is not the first time. Numerous governments in the past have faced the…
AUKUS, seems like a name of a secret organisation from a Robert Ludlum or an Ian Fleming novel. Cold War parallels notwithstanding, it does seem to hark back to an era of intrigue and espionage. This is of course the new working group recently announced by Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, UK Prime Minister Boris…
“In war, the moral is to the physical as ten is to one”. This quote from Napoleon Bonaparte could be an apt description of what happened to the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) in front of the ever-advancing Taliban! While the speed of ANDSF’s capitulation was a shock, the end results perhaps not…
Briefings by the military high command to parliamentarians have become a regular feature in Pakistan. So the recently concluded national security meeting on 1st of July 2021 shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. If media reports are to be believed, the topics under discussion were Kashmir, Afghanistan and internal security. Going by recent chain…
Even by Pakistan’s highly desensitised standards, the recent case of underage sexual abuse takes the sorry tale of sordid events to a new low. The impact may not be profound even though it ought to be when you hear or read about such incidents. However, the existence of a sickening video makes it hard to…
Pakistan is an example in dichotomy! And the social sphere is not beyond the same reproach, we treat others as we ourselves don’t want to be treated. This is true for all strata of society from immediate family to clans to national leaders. Two recent examples push this notion firmly into the spotlight. The rationale…
Gloria Steinem an American journalist and socio-political activist says “law and justice are not always the same. When they aren’t, destroying the law may be the first step toward changing it”. Witness any court case and this will become obvious the losing party almost always cries injustice! Scores of lawyers and their clients can be…
Imagine these conflicting accolades for one person a moderniser and a dictator, a visionary and a short-term tactician, a racist and father of the nation, a healer and a strongman. This is how history will regard Mahathir Mohammad! Love him or hate him, and there aren’t many in-between, anyone would be hard pressed to refute…
“First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out because I was not a…
The Middle East is awash with whispers and speculations! After the UAE-Israel deal, Bahrain and Sudan have followed suit. Next in line may be Morocco and Oman. The grapevine also has it that not only the Saudis gave tacit approval of the UAE-Israel deal but also that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) recently…
