©2009 PakistanColumns.com
Not Vietnam, not yet – Tariq Fatemi
THERE was no intention to write on Afghanistan so soon after the last column but it appears that an impression has been created that the Obama administration has reached the conclusion that it may have no other option but to withdraw US troops from that country.
Moreover, [...]
The terror of a just peace – Jawed Naqvi
PROF Marc Gopin and Rajmohan Gandhi among other contemporary pacifists belong to the tradition of Martin Luther King, Mohandas Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu et al. Gopin is an American rabbi and a university teacher.
In his extensive work on the Middle East conundrum, he has argued that [...]
Let’s do better at the UN – I.A. Rehman
PAKISTAN’S inability to honour its obligations under international treaties has often caused it embarrassment at the United Nations. Nothing proves this better than the treatment its periodic reports under the UN conventions receive from the relevant committees.
For example, Pakistan cut a sorry figure at the Committee on [...]
Weak politicos – Harris Khalique
He came, he saw, he got subdued. This is what happens with popular political leaders or popularly elected civilian rulers of Pakistan. Read ’she’ in case of Benazir Bhutto. The overwhelming establishment of the Pakistani state subjugates any free will or desire to bring about a real change in the economic [...]
Zero tolerance to bigotry – Shafqat Mahmood
Is this another sign of our disarray that we cannot even celebrate one Eid throughout the country? Some would argue that this is not a new problem; that the NWFP has always followed its own religious drumbeat. Fair enough, but why has no government been able to resolve this?
The [...]
Chasing out Musharraf phantom – Dr Muzaffar Iqbal
Catapulted to the ludicrous US lecture-tour circuit, with reported payments of as much as 300,000 dollars per lecture, the ex-four-hat-wearer of Pakistan is not really a star performer: his only right of passage to that distinguished circuit, which will take him to 17 America states over a period [...]
Gas and sugar – A tale of two prices – Dr Pervez Tahir
The joint petition the federal government and the provinces filed in the Supreme Court on Sept 19 for the suspension of the Lahore High Court decision to fix the sugar price at Rs40 per kilogram made the front pages of the newspapers. Another [...]
The right choice on climate – Ahmad Rafay Alam
Earlier this week, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon convened a one-day summit on climate change and invited nearly 100 world leaders to participate in the run-up to the anticipated new ‘climate deal’ in Copenhagen this December. In his opening address, the UN Secretary-General warned the participants from around [...]
Reversing 800 years of history – Ayaz Amir
All the great Muslim rulers of our past whom we look upon as our heroes were either Turks or Afghans, from Mahmud Ghaznavi to the last of the Mughals — Caucasians all of them, who, in successive waves of invasion and conquest from the colder climates of the [...]
Beyond the crisis —Age Bakker
The G-20 has shown leadership in providing the political and financial backing for these changes, and the IMF has responded swiftly. There is, however, a genuine risk that the political momentum will dissipate as the world economy slowly recovers
When world leaders gather in Pittsburgh for the G-20 summit, they will [...]
Preparing to beat a retreat? —Najmuddin A Shaikh
We should note that the International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS), the influential think tank at which President Zardari spoke last Friday, has said in its annual review that “Pakistan remained the biggest source of instability for Afghanistan”
The publication in the Washington Post of a redacted version [...]
Let’s have some fun! —Farish A Noor
Indonesians are intensely proud of their culture and heritage, and will not compromise that for the sake of some radical fundamentalist sending out messages of jihad from a cave in Afghanistan
As the centre of my universe has moved to Central Java, I find myself travelling to the cities [...]
Getting AQ’s story out? —Ejaz Haider
I can imagine Henderson’s excitement over bringing to the world Khan’s account. But he should also be able to sift the grain from the chaff. And yes, the issue of who is using whom cannot be avoided even when the story is good and the subject enticing
Dr AQ Khan [...]