A virulent debate has been going on in Pakistan about the implementation of the 20 points National Action Plan (NAP)  against religious extremism and terrorism since its inception on December 24, 2014. The opposition political parties have been blaming the government of lacking the required political will and commitment for taking the short term and long term measures for eradicating ...

While non-Muslim minorities seem like the most obvious victims of Pakistan’s repressive   blasphemy laws, in practice the picture is not as simplistic. That is not to say that the existence of these draconian blasphemy laws does not curtail the “substantive freedoms” of the minority groups in Pakistan — they certainly do. How the so called ‘Muslim’ penal code is creating ...

A mysterious flurry of so-called jirgas (a traditional people’s assembly of tribal areas) has been witnessed during the last few weeks. The agenda of these activities seems to create confusion at a time when Pashtuns living in Federally Administered Tribal Area (FATA) appear to be at the verge of taking steps out of the colonial system of governance. The aforementioned ...

Self-policing: The colonial system of Frontier Management through “traditions” and “jirgas” (1) In 1799 the Afghan emperor Zaman Shah executed his powerful vazir Painda Khan Barakzai, who Zaman thought was a party to the recent coup of his half-brother Mahmud against him. A bloody civil war ensued in the wake of Painda Khan’s execution in the Afghan heartlands. This civil ...

After taking charge of Presidency, Ashraf Ghani was very enthusiastic to have more cordial and wide ranging strategic relations with Pakistan, his three frequent visits including the highly criticized visit one toArmy GHQ is indicative of the fact. However, President Ashraf Ghani was not happy with the outcomes which resulted in nose dive slide in the already not-so-good relations between ...

The demography plays an important role in the stability, peace, progress and smooth running of a country and the foreign and domestic policy is grossly rest on demography, strategic location. Watan (Motherland) and country are inherently different words. Countries are made by people and disintegrated by people. Watan (Motherland) is a more natural entity, owned by a race or inheritance ...

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 ...

A few days ago Pope Francis in his Christmas message, mentioned three icons of peace and non-violence from the 20th century; Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela and Abdul Ghaffar Khan (popularly known as Bacha Khan). One would have expected it to be an important news item worth reporting by the Pakistani media. A towering political figure, social reformer and freedom fighter ...

As U.S. President Barack Obama leaves office on January 20, he leaves behind an unfinished conflict, the longest lasting and least successful U.S. war in history: Afghanistan. For Afghanistan and the Afghans, Mr. Obama was a President of contradiction whose Afghan policy proved markedly disastrous. He wrongly believed that he would win the War on Terror militarily and by appeasing ...

Enforced disappearances have remained a serious problem in terms of violation of human rights in Pakistan for a long time. But the scale and magnitude that this problem has acquired over the last one decade is frightening. The fourth military operation that started in Balochistan against Baloch nationalists in 2005 saw a growing number of Baloch political activists getting disappeared. ...