A visit to Siachen 12 years after it became the highest and coldest battleground in the world evoked “WITHERING HEIGHTS” (Sep 19, 1996), “The watershed for the Indus and Tarim River Basins, the sparsely populated Karakoram Ranges has four peaks exceeding 26000 ft, K-2 being the world’s second highest mountain after Everest. The Karakorams are…
Trying to muddle way out of another unpopular war and loath to concede defeat, US and NATO have been racing against time to build an Afghan army able to fend for itself after 130,000 US and ISAF troops pull out in 2014. The final transition phase, involving handing over responsibility for provinces and districts to…
Talking to the media, Col (Retd) Syed Akhtar Abbas, Director Legal of the Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF), confirmed the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) probe into Pakistan’s import of “Ephedrine” during 2010 beyond its stipulated international quota. Published on its website the INCB 2011 report, said that it was “increasingly concerned about the diversion and attempted…
The historian Marc Bloch defined “feudal society” as a warrior aristocracy bound by vassalage. A lord was a noble who held land, the land was called a fief. Those granted possession by the lord were called vassals, expected to give service to their lord. Wealth was derived from agriculture organized not by market forces but…
A friend of mine who chooses to remain un-named forwarded an SMS message presently roaming the ether, to quote “A question in the minds of every Pakistani to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, is your task only to give sermons to the public? Why has judgment not come in any high profile cases?…
It is unfortunate that Pakistan continues to make headlines for all the wrong reasons. While one acknowledges that as a developing nation it will be natural for any country to have its fair share of social, political and economical problems but where Pakistan is concerned, the real issue is not the problems but how practically…
Macro-security being the business of the state, micro-security is the domain of individuals or organisations. With a citizen requiring the safety and security of his life and that of his family, property and business, and the state increasingly engaged in macro-security because of terrorism, private security business has become an industry in its own right….
A decade or so ago a joint venture foreign (JV) security company was using non-armoured vehicles (known as “soft” vehicles) to transport cash alongwith their armoured vans. Cash cannot be transported in quantity except in armoured vehicles, it is against the law but it costs 4-5 times more to operate an armoured vehicle over a…
Good governance in any society requires the safety and well-being of its citizens, peace and harmony cannot be maintained in isolation by the law enforcement agencies (LEAs) alone. Personal security remains the responsibility of the individual, corporate body, establishment, etc in any country of the world. While private security has given significant support to the…
The media hype being generated about Balochistan is a glaring example where the security establishment is being held solely responsible for the unfolding crisis. Most of our problems stem from jumping to conclusions based on incorrect facts, and going on to deliberately distorting then to suit mass perception. There are targeted killings going on and…
