Phir wohi chand ka jhagra – Yaqoob Ghaznavi

Hamaray hukmaran tab kya kahain gay – Sailani

Black water – Zeeshan Yaseen

Army and people – S Ausaf Husain

Army and people – S Ausaf Husain
In his letter under the above title, Phil Mason (Sept 19) has tried to defame the Pakistani Army by just quoting two isolated incidents, one regarding the slapping of a police constable in Rawalpindi by an army officer and the other in Abbottabad of the forcible parking of his [...]

The north-south nexus – Kamila Hyat

The north-south nexus – Kamila Hyat
The writer is a freelance columnist
and former newspaper editor
The operation against the Taliban militants continues in the north. The government has happily lapped up the praise this has brought in. Rewards in the form of cash handouts are eagerly anticipated and the government is keen these be handed over directly [...]

Death in a stampede – Dr Ashfaque H Khan

Death in a stampede – Dr Ashfaque H Khan
Last week the city of Karachi witnessed one of the worst human tragedies in decades. Some 20 women and children were crushed to death in a stampede to collect free food items, particularly flour and sugar. Distribution of free food items by the philanthropists during Ramazan is [...]

Jaswant’s book and Partition – Yasser Latif Hamdani

Jaswant’s book and Partition – Yasser Latif Hamdani
Jaswant Singh’s book “Jinnah India — Partition Independence” has elicited interesting reviews in Pakistan. They are interesting entirely because of how off the mark they are which shows how little our country’s so-called intelligentsia understands the finer points of political science, constitutional law and history, especially those deep [...]

19th-century mindset – Ikram Sehgal

19th-century mindset – Ikram Sehgal
The structure of an Army unit in the fighting arms, at the battalion level in the case of infantry and engineers, and regiments in the case of armour and artillery, is a case study in “corporate governance.” The commanding officer (CO) of lieutenant colonel’s rank is supported by a second-in-command who [...]

National education policy 2009 – a critique – Naveed Ejaz

National education policy 2009 – a critique – Naveed Ejaz
The announcement of the National Education Policy, 2009, was supposed to be the starting point for a nationwide debate on much needed systemic educational reforms. Yet apart from the odd cursory analysis or two, it seems as if educationalists, academics, politicians and the media are largely [...]

America and us —Munir Attaullah

America and us —Munir Attaullah
When it comes down to the nitty-gritty of one’s own personal beneficial interests, usually everyone ends up being a ‘realist’. If this is the case even with individuals, is it not even more certain that policy makers charged with taking hard decisions will act in what they perceive as hard [...]

Behind the scenes —Dr Manzur Ejaz

Behind the scenes —Dr Manzur Ejaz
In Pakistan, the same people or families produce goods, make laws about the production of those goods and then implement them. Therefore, the system is not structured for a free market economy
Bulleh Shah famously said:
Kitay Ramdas kitay Fateh Mohammad, eho qadeemi shor
Nipat gia dohan da jhag’ra, wichon nikal [...]

He’s not playing golf —Ejaz Haider

He’s not playing golf —Ejaz Haider
General Zia-ul-Haq was an armoured corps officer but always acted as a gunner and relied on indirect fire and the strategy of the indirect approach. Musharraf was a gunner but has always preferred direct fire
Like poltergeist former General-President Pervez Musharraf won’t go away.
Nawaz Sharif thinks the only way [...]

Uloom o funoon kay bum – Asad Mufti

Hamain sab hay yaad zara zara – 1 – Athar Shah Khan

NRO shor kon macha raha hay – Nazeer Dhoki