By MICHAEL KUGELMAN in the Wall st Journal, Apr 17, 2015 The writer is senior associate for South Asia at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. On April 16, in the volatile Pakistani megacity of Karachi, gunmen shot a 55-year-old American woman named Debra Lobo. They attacked her as she drove home from her job as an administrator at a medical college. Luckily, Ms. Lobo survived. The attack was a troubling reminder of the…
Posts published in “Pak Media comment”
The writer is a lawyer based in Lahore. He has a Masters in Constitutional Law from Harvard Law School. Earlier this month, the Army Chief “confirmed” the death sentence for six TTP militants, who had been tried in the military courts, recently established under the 21st Constitutional Amendment, and the Pakistan Army (Amendment) Act, 2015. On Thursday, these death sentences were suspended by a seventeen member bench (Full Court) of the honorable Supreme Court of…
Targeted attacks have returned to Karachi. On Thursday, the vice-principal of Jinnah Medical and Dental College Debra Lobo was shot in the face by militants who claimed to be linked to the Islamic State. The American citizen has survived the attack – but only just. On the same day, the SHO of the Preedy police station, Ejaz Khwaja, was shot dead by two gunmen. The SHO was travelling to the police station in civilian clothes…
GIVEN the menu of items discussed at the last apex committee meeting in Karachi, it would appear that the Rangers’ operation in the city is approaching an important turning point. They appear to be moving beyond simply apprehending violent elements, to actively draining the swamp that breeds them, — with a particular focus on the sources of funding which come from “extortion, illegal hydrants, kidnapping for ransom” and other such activity. Additionally, a computerised record…
The author is a contributing writer for The Atlantic. In the ten months since its stunning capture of Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, the Islamic State has expanded its reach beyond its geographic base, establishing a foothold in countries such as Libya. A vicious suicide attack in Afghanistan now raises fear that the war-torn country may be next. On Saturday, an unidentified man detonated explosives inside a crowded bank in Jalalabad, a city located near the…
On Sunday, six people were found dead in a chemical tank of a pickle factory in Karachi. This story slipped beneath the gloss of front page headlines and TV news shows but deserves our attention. The factory had reportedly been set up in a bungalow in a housing society in the Korangi area. At least 15 other such factories are reported to be operating in the area. The story in this case appears to be…
On Sunday the police, acting on a tip-off by a child rights activist, stopped a marriage ceremony between a 6 year old girl and a 22 year old main in Dubai Chowk, near Thokar Niaz Baig, Lahore. The girl, Sumaira, was married to a man thrice her age because her family could not pay off a debt to the father of the groom – the groom being a labourer in a nearby housing society. The…
The writer is a professor of Psychiatry and consultant Forensic Psychiatrist in the UK. Pakistani Norwegians have a strong presence in higher education, media and politics. First generation Pakistani Norwegians can be distinguished from the mainstream in several demographic aspects while second generation Pakistani Norwegians have gone on to become professionals and politicians. The diaspora began during the 1970s when first generation Pakistani Norwegians arrived in Norway as guest workers under Norway’s then liberal immigration…
The writer is a freelance columnist. The ‘enlightened’ opinion on Pakistan’s struggles during the last six decades points at a conflict between secular forces (political or military) versus conservative religious forces. Eminent historian, Dr. Farzana Shaikh dismissed this notion in a recent lecture at Lahore University of Management Sciences. She was of the view that the Pakistan movement and Pakistan’s trajectory since inception can be described as a competition between different interpretations of religion and…
QUETTA: A suspected Baloch militant was killed and another was injured in an exchange of fire with security forces in Uch area of Sui in Dera Bugti district on Sunday, official sources said. Armed militants from a banned Baloch organisation attacked a Frontier Corps convoy when it was passing through Uch on its way to Sui. The FC troops returned fire and the shootout continued for some time. “One militant of the banned Baloch outfit…
Our Afghanistan policy: By Hussain Nadim in The Express Tribune, April 18th, 2015.
The writer is Project Director of Peace and Development Unit at the Planning Commission. Pakistan may be the “worst neighbour in hell” as the sentiment goes in Afghanistan. However, the recent shift in Afghanistan’s policy on Pakistan depicts a new Afghan mindset — a new-found ‘respect’ for Pakistan, freeing it from the accusation of being a state that caused instability in Afghanistan. Just a few years ago, while attending seminars on Afghanistan in the US,…