by Syed Fakhar Kakakhel in TNS, Dec11, 2022The writer is a Peshawar-based journalist, researcher and trainerThe recent attempt on the life of a Pakistani diplomat in Kabul has raised concerns about the law and order situation in Afghanistan. According to Taliban sources, the assailant was of Turkmen descent. If that is indeed the case, it speaks of an alarming development. Why should a Central Asian militant pick a Pakistani diplomat for a target? Pakistan has…
Posts published in “Pak Media comment”
Editorial in Pakistan Today, Dec 8, 2022The Supreme Court’s taking suo motu notice of journalist Arshad Sharif’s murder in Nairobi may be a case of too little too late. An FIR of the murder was registered by the Ramna Police Station’s SHO on the Court’s order on Tuesday. The complainant said in the FIR that he had gone to the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences on the night of October 26, when the medicolegal examination…
All the king’s men and all the king’s horses have huffed and puffed beyond their capacities but the Aristotlean tragedy of prominent journalist Arshad Sharif continues to hang in the air. On Tuesday, Chief Justice Umar Atta Bandial reminded the state how the Supreme Court did not believe in “wasting time in the investigation” and 40 days was more than enough to produce the report of the fact-finding mission. Glaring loopholes in the “unsatisfactory” medical…
by Zahid Hussain in Dawn, November 30th, 2022The writer is an author and journalist.IMRAN Khan’s latest change of tack has caught his opponents by surprise. For months, the federal government had braced itself for a siege, and was reinforcing security around the capital. But the PTI’s decision to call off the march and dissolve the Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assemblies has changed the entire scenario. It all happened on the eve of the change of…
The ‘news’ on the appointment of the impending Army Staff kept ‘breaking’ day in and day out for several days. No one knows how and why a routine matter of selection turned into a national mega event…!! However, it seemed as if the solution to all internal and external issues were centered around the ‘correct’ choice of the COAS. Perhaps, due to this decision’s ‘far reaching’ effects in the affairs of the country, the entire…
by Kamran Yousaf in The Express Tribune, Nov 28th, 2022.The writer is a senior foreign affairs correspondent at The Express TribuneAfter weeks of speculations, Pakistan finally has a new army chief. In a departure from previous decisions, the PML-N government went ahead with the principal of seniority this time. The posts of Chief of Army Staff (COAS) and Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (CJCSC) have been handed to the two senior most generals. General…
by Maleeha Lodhi in Dawn, Nov 28th, 2022The writer is a former ambassador to the US, UK & UN.NOW that the drama over the appointment of a new army chief is over, the government and opposition, as well as the media, should focus on the real challenges facing the country. For weeks, the chief of army staff’s appointment dominated the political conversation and television talk shows, prompting endless speculation on social media. The impression this…
by Shahzaib Hassan in Daily Times, Nov 22, 2022The writer is a freelance columnist.Nothing could be more dangerous than populist politics for a country like Pakistan whose fledgling democratic setup has suffered massive blows via military coups and hybrid regime models. Given the multi-coloured conspiracy narrative of Imran Khan along with his populist cult that has pervaded the socio-political psyche of the country, the democracy of Pakistan seems more fragile than ever as the scandalisation…
THE trial of Rao Anwar for the murder of Naqeebullah Mehsud is a test case. It will determine whether the criminal justice system has the will to hold accountable a top police official — now retired — whose terrifying reputation as an ‘encounter specialist’ long preceded this particular killing and yet who managed to thrive professionally. The former SSP was accused of the extrajudicial murder of Naqeebullah and three other detainees in Karachi in January…
Pakistan-Afghanistan Relations
by Abdul Hadi Mayar in Daily Times, Dec 10, 2022The writer is an independent freelance journalist based in Islamabad covering South & Central Asia.If Pakistan objects to Afghanistan’s bilateral relations with India, it will be tantamount to its sheer meddling with the internal affairs of an independent neighbouring state. But if Afghanistan holds its relations with Pakistan hostage to its interactions with India, or any other country for that matter, it will be equally unfair…