Read Opinion - Pakistan: November 2012

Cyril Almeida: Outrage central

THERE’S been a lot of outrage in Pakistan the past week. The self-appointed custodians of the national interest have been outraged at the temerity of the self-appointed custodians...

Nadeem F. Paracha: Smokers’ Corner: Refiguring Jinnah

Today many Pakistanis are aware of Jinnah’s August 11, 1947, speech in which he clearly explains Pakistan to be a democratic Muslim majority country where religion has nothing...

Anjum Niaz: View from US: Life changer

With all the comforts of the First World, Hurricane Sandy downgraded the East Coast of America to a Third World status. Even worse, actually. As I write these...

Dr Farrukh Saleem: Generals

What do the generals want? The Pakistan Army, like all other institutions, is a pyramid. But the Pakistan Army, unlike any other Pakistani institution, is the only Pakistani...

Ghazi Salahuddin: We’ve lost it, almost

Believe it or not, a decisive majority in Pakistan believes – or so it did over two months ago – that a car can run on water. I...

S Iftikhar Murshed: ‘The Scarlet Pimpernel’ of Afghanistan

As the curtain rises for the second Obama presidential term, the immediate foreign policy priority will be the smooth withdrawal of US-led troops from Afghanistan by the end...

Praful Bidwai: Mired in trouble

Last Sunday, the Congress party held a rally in Delhi to celebrate the United Progressive Alliance government’s disastrous decision to open up multi-brand retail to foreign direct investment....

Khaled Ahmed: What is ‘national interest’?

Our Army Chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani says no one and no institution should singly decide what Pakistan’s national interest is to be. In other words, a national...

Saroop Ijaz: Chief versus Chief

“The emperor Abul-Fath Jalaluddin Muhammad, king of kings, known since his childhood as Akbar, meaning “the great,” and latterly, in spite of the tautology of it, as Akbar...

Ahmed Bilal Mehboob: Peace and friendship for good governance

Nitish Kumar, chief minister of India’s fastest-growing state, Bihar, is on a week-long visit to Pakistan with a 10-member delegation on the invitation of the chief ministers of...

Anwer Mooraj: The London that was and will never be …

This week I am avoiding politics and plunging once again into nostalgia, to the old black and white English movies that I had downloaded in the prehistoric days...