Resistance personified by Farooq Sulehria
24 July, 2010Saturday, July 24, 2010 Farooq Sulehria Afghan leader Malalai Joya is resistance personified. She is the most vocal critic of both US occupation of Afghanistan and the ruling warlords. At the same time, she speaks dismissively of the Taliban: “Their violence is no resistance”. However, Malalai Joya hardly grabs headlines in the Pakistani media that [...]
Afghan transit trade by Nauman Asghar
24 July, 2010Saturday, July 24, 2010 Nauman Asghar Pakistan and Afghanistan are renegotiating their transit trade agreement which was signed in 1965. The revision is not only with regard to Afghan goods’ transit to the Arabian Sea but also for the definition of the terms for Pakistan to secure routes to the Central Asian republics through Afghanistan. [...]
Handcuffed to history by Aijaz Zaka Syed
23 July, 2010Friday, July 23, 2010 Aijaz Zaka Syed I sometimes wonder if Shakespeare had Indian and Pakistani leaders in mind when he wrote those immortal lines in As You Like It: “All the world’s a stage and all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his [...]
One people by Harris Khalique
23 July, 2010Side-effect Friday, July 23, 2010 Harris Khalique Memon Goth was once a village on the outskirts of Karachi which has now become a semi-urban neighbourhood of sorts. Traditionally, it has been a PPP enclave and people I know from there have always boasted their pro-poor and secular credentials. Most residents belong to Sindhi- or Jadgali-speaking [...]
French crusade against veil
22 July, 2010Thursday, July 22, 2010 Malik Muhammad Ashraf The French National Assembly passed a draft law on July 13 banning wearing of the veil by Muslim women, with all but one member supporting the bill. This rare show of unanimity by an otherwise divided house revolved around the argument that the wearing of the veil was [...]






