©2009 PakistanColumns.com
Cutting the white – Chris Cork
We may have passed the point of no return as far as the victimisation of the minorities is concerned – not a statement to be made either lightly or without considerable reflection. Bluntly put, the future for religious minorities in Pakistan is looking extremely bleak and the accelerating incidence of [...]
Religion and politics – Rubina Saigol
The writer is an independent researcher specialising in social development
In the past few months, there has been a noticeable increase in religiously-motivated violence against minority communities, especially in Punjab. The most recent case is that of 20-year-old Robert Fanish Masih, whose mysterious death in the Sialkot district jail, where he [...]
Peace process and 26/11 – A Siddique
Ever since the destruction of the World Trade Center in New York on Sept 11, 2001, terrorism has acquired the status of a regulatory tap that India has compulsively employed to control the ebb and flow of Indo-Pakistani bilateral relations. The strategy has served them well and even after [...]
Threat from America – Roedad Khan
If you want to know what happens to an ill-led and ill-governed, small country which, under the leadership of its corrupt rulers who owe everything to Washington, attaches itself to a powerful country like the United States, visit Pakistan.
With the full knowledge and approval of our government, American predators and [...]
Bagram and the fine print – Huma Yusuf
US PRESIDENT Barack Obama dominated headlines last week for tossing out George W. Bush’s plans for a missile defence shield in Eastern Europe.
The praise with which that decision was met globally will probably help mask the fact that another announcement earlier in the week, regarding the [...]
Regional power rivalry – Talat Masood
Currently, the Obama administration is undertaking a major review of its Af-Pak policy and seeking Congressional approval for a substantial increase in troop strength in Afghanistan to counter the growing power of Taliban. Congress is likely to agree, but after a tough battle as there is growing skepticism about the [...]
The Balochistan ‘package’ – Sanaullah Baloch
THE Baloch people had hoped that over the past few years the central government would have come to the realisation that the conflict in their province was not merely about financial packages.In fact, the struggle in the resource-rich but povertystricken region is political: it aims at ending Islamabad’s exploitation, oppression [...]
War blunders in 1965 – Javed Hussain
INCENSED by India’s intransigent attitude towards Kashmir and encouraged by victory in the Rann of Kutch, Field Marshal Ayub Khan felt that the time was ripe to wrest Kashmir from India. He planned to do this in two phases.
In the first phase, the Muslim population in occupied Kashmir would [...]
The civil-military equation – Shahzad Chaudhry
I hate to call it ‘divide’, though that is what it can be more succinctly associated with. Two specific events have triggered the phenomenon to resurface once again. Before these two struck, the more intense and more recent spate of anti-militarism in Pakistan had just about abated.
This was after November [...]
An amazing month —Shahzad Chaudhry
Come what may, the RPPs will be here, and load-shedding shall vanish on December 31, 2009, at least that is what our minister of power says. I have no doubt that he will deliver. For the faithful though, belated Monsoons have shielded them and kept hope alive
The Holy month of [...]
Looking for justice —Syed Mansoor Hussain
The ultimate conundrum is that if a Christian is asked the question, do you believe that the Prophet of Islam (pbuh) was a Prophet and the Quran is the word of God, the believing Christians must say no, and if they say that, under the law are they not [...]
Not so sugary, this crisis —Shahid Kardar
The only way to tame the sugar producers is to open up our markets and reduce the level of protection they enjoy. Most of them would die when exposed to international competition while consumers would be better off and scarce resources diverted into avenues where the returns to [...]