Book Review by: Dr Qaisar Rashid The spy chronicles: RAW, ISI, and the illusion of peace. (by Amarjit Singh Dulat, Asad Durrani and Aditya Sinha; published by HarperCollins in 2018, India) Composed of 33 chapters, the book revolves around the idea that if Indians and Pakistanis can become friends on a neutral land, they can also become friends while inhabiting ...

Book Review : Ghost Wars  Writer: Steve Coll Review : Zahid Khattak This book is one of the hard to read books I have read, but it was rewarding to have finished reading this book.”Ghost Wars “ is extremely detailed in its facts and offers much knowledge for anyone that may not be as educated in the history of the ...

“My Life With The Taliban” A Book Review by Zahid Khattak Abdus Salam Zaeef, a former Taliban envoy to Pakistan, offers a unique contribution to the literature written on the conflict in Afghanistan along with his autobiography. He presents an un-apologetic Taliban attitude on the events in Afghanistan and as such give his perspective on different issues. For instance, his ...

Rajiv Dogra’s book, Durand’s Curse: A Line across the Pashtun Heart, is a perceptive analysis of the adventurism that created the Afghan problem. It is a must read for scholars of South Asia Barring perhaps tiny Sri Lanka, the British Empire amputated every non-Christian land that fell under its heel, causing wounds that time could not heal. As meticulously documented by ...

Please click on the link below Diwal-Sara-Khabaray

Book Review “Dewaal Sara Khabaray” “Talking to the wall”             Rahmat Shah Sayel once wrote “Chains every where, trenches abound  and military posts dotting the homeland, Be inflamed by your own consciousness, the homeland is a hell to live in.” As I listen to these piercing lines in the voice of a popular Pashtun singer Gulzar Alam sitting hundred of ...

Pata Khazana (The Hidden Treasure):  A haze of controversy surrounds the ancient jewel of Pashto Literature (Observations by: Angelina Merisi) One would expect to find some level of controversy, surrounding an obscure, archaic manuscript found in an old village Mosque in 1886, subsequently claimed to disclose Pashto poems and biographical sketches from the eighth century straight down through the eighteenth ...

Khushal Khan Khattak (1613-1689), is an iconic figure in Pashtun history, literature and culture, often referred to as the national poet of Pashtuns. The life and character of Khushal Khan Khattak presents a complex, multifaceted terrain, considering he was not simply a great Chieftain and poet, but also a hunter, physician, philosopher, scholar and thinker (Shaheen: 2007). It would be ...

Five hundred years ago Machiavelli wrote: “A ruler must not worry about being labelled cruel when it’s a question of keeping subjects loyal and united. It is better to be feared than loved, for we can say of most people that they are ungrateful, unreliable, they lie, they fake, they are greedy. The ruler who has relied on promises is ...

Abdul Ghafoor Liwal is an academic politician working for enlightenment and development of Afghan society for several years in Afghanistan. He has served on many governmental and non-governmental positions in Afghanistan. Mr. Liwal new book, ‘The Humanistic Politics in Afghanistan’ paves the way to critical thinking and helps in understanding the mindset of the present-day Afghan people. This book highlights ...