Lessons in disaster – Anjum Niaz
Lessons in disaster – Anjum Niaz The writer is a freelance journalist with over twenty years of experience in national and international reporting Will Obama and Zardari face failure should there be a clash between COIN and COTE? The naysayer – from military intelligence spooks down to doctoral candidates and research fellows in prestigious Washington [...]
No firewalls! – Anjum Niaz
No firewalls! – Anjum Niaz Before I shout that Islamabad’s establishment has fire-walled information critical to get FOP and SIP and whatever else going for Pakistan, here’s something that should tickle us all. This gem should get you to smile. By now the little-known Congressman from South Carolina Joe Wilson is a world-famous beamer who [...]
Pointing figures – Anjum Niaz
Pointing figures – Anjum Niaz The writer is a freelance journalist with over twenty years of experience in national and international reporting The vibes from Washington may not be Zardari-friendly. The US Senate seems in no hurry to approve the five-year $1.5 billion annual aid to Pakistan. Why? Before we address this question, let’s talk [...]
Change at PCB? – Anjum Niaz
Change at PCB? – Anjum Niaz The first time I saw Ejaz Butt was more than half a century ago. Earlier this year I saw him again. I was seized with the sea change that age, fatigue and stress had wrought on the man who ruled over hearts at the Lahore Stadium, long before Zulfikar [...]
Cry of the ancient mariner – Anjum Niaz
Cry of the ancient mariner – Anjum Niaz he writer is a freelance journalist with over twenty years of experience in national and international reporting The Supreme Court of Pakistan has received yet one more petition praying for justice. The ancient mariner says he was “Illegally” retired from the navy and made to flee the [...]
Deja vu – Anjum Niaz
Deja vu – Anjum Niaz Are ambassador Husain Haqqani’s dinner parties jinxed? This is the second time in eight months that his soiree at a hotel in New York turned into a jamboree. The chief guest both the times was President Zardari. And both the times he had to be evacuated from the dinner-turned-tempest by [...]
New kid on the block – Anjum Niaz
New kid on the block – Anjum Niaz The writer is a freelance journalist with over twenty years of experience in national and international reporting Its name is IDP. It was reborn ten days ago. Baptized by Barack Obama while Asif Ali Zardari held it, the American president showered the newborn with a $1.9 billion [...]
Seeds of rebellion – Anjum Niaz
Seeds of rebellion – Anjum Niaz Look into the seeds of time and you shall get the answers you seek. Pakistan’s history doesn’t lie; our leaders lie. They continue their yarns as the nation of 176 million face death, disintegration and disaster. Chivalrous chatter straddling out of the presidency and the Prime Minister’s House leave [...]
New accountability law – Anjum Niaz
New accountability law – Anjum Niaz Just when the country is moored in its death throes, the Zardari government has bookmarked two damning acts that are inexorable and therefore fatal. After a shake-down from the Swat Taliban, it has ingloriously surrendered to them; and today, it has treacherously capitulated to the corrupt. Like the militant [...]
Drones are a red herring! – Anjum Niaz
Drones are a red herring! – Anjum Niaz The writer is a freelance journalist with over twenty years of experience in national and international reporting “The drones don’t fly out of Pakistan,” grandly declares President Asif Zardari. It makes headline news. On the same day our army chief expresses similar sentiments. Earlier Prime Minister Gilani [...]
Little Einsteins – Anjum Niaz
Little Einsteins Anjum Niaz Pakistan needs big ideas like Einstein’s to fight terror; not a kindergarten of little Einsteins who whizz around the presidency, the PM House and parliament pretending to stall the march of the Taliban. Last week, the 170 million Pakistanis were handed down their death sentence. We were told that twice a [...]
Holbrooke’s two-headed hydra – Anjum Niaz
Holbrooke’s two-headed hydra Anjum Niaz The writer is a freelance journalist with over twenty years of experience in national and international reporting President Obama’s pointman for ‘Af-Pak’ Richard Holbrooke is hunkered at the American embassy in Islamabad. And so is US Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen. The Americans are in Pakistan to [...]
Together we can – Anjum Niaz
Together we can Anjum Niaz Enough! Bring Baitullah Mehsood to justice. If you can’t, ask America to do it. And silence! All you handwringing hypocrites accusing Pakistan of killing its own people. Shame on you for being two-faced. These tribal thugs are destroying us and you say we should let them? Our military and the [...]
The gora factor
The gora factor Anjum Niaz It was the summer of 1976 (I think) when an Italian brunette by the name of Oriana Fallaci landed in Rawalpindi. She was svelte, sexy and terribly sharp. We watched her interview Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto rhapsodizing on our black & white TV sets. What the viewers don’t know [...]
