One jab in Punjab —Salman Tarik Kureshi It is clear that there is such a thing as the Punjabi Taliban. One can no longer refer to the Taliban as a uniquely Pakhtun phenomenon. Punjabi militants are running training facilities and have established cells across the province to conduct their murderous operations This city by the sea, with its ethnically complex population and relatively cosmopolitan attitudes, presents an excellent vantage point for regarding the rest of the country. Nestled here, between the Baloch foothills and the empty mouths of the severely depleted Indus, up which the bitter seawater tides now wash … Continue reading Punjabi Taliban Mullahs

By Syed Fazl-e-Haider KARACHI – In 2008, after several years of negotiations, nuclear-armed India and the United States signed a civilian nuclear deal that in essence allowed India access to civilian nuclear technology and fuel from other countries even though it is not a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Pakistan, which like its neighbor India has a nuclear arsenal and is not a signatory to the NPT, has long been rankled by India’s deal, wanting one of its own with the US. This topic featured high on the agenda of a top-level Pakistani delegation that held talks inWashington this … Continue reading US dangles Pakistan a carrot

By Syed Saleem Shahzad KARACHI – After an often stormy relationship with the United States over the past 63 years since its independence, Pakistan is in the process of forging an all-embracing strategic relationship with Washington. A delegation led by Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi is in Washington for meetings at the State Department with a team led by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to discuss matters ranging from the situation in Afghanistan to a civil nuclear deal to commerce and agriculture. The American military command also specially invited a military contingent, including army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kiani … Continue reading War and peace: A Taliban view

By Abeer Mohammed BAGHDAD – The movement led by anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr is poised to make a dramatic return to the forefront of Iraq’s Shi’ite politics, combining its success in recent elections with the anticipated elevation of its leader’s religious status. The Sadrists are the main faction in the Iraqi National Alliance, which is projected to have won 68 seats in the new parliament. The bloc was the main challenger for the Shi’ite vote against Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, who has been regarded with suspicion by the Sadrists since the Iraqi military led a crackdown on their militia in … Continue reading Muqtada’s star on the rise again

By Stephen Wong SHANGHAI – The story of Chinese speed skater Zhou Yang is that of Cinderella turning into a princess. After winning two gold medals at the Vancouver Winter Olympics last month, 18-year-old Zhou, from a poor street-vendor family in northeast China, received things she might have never dreamed of. She was awarded 3 million yuan (US$439,397), a 94-square-meter apartment in her home town, a car and a scholarship worth as much as 9,000 yuan per year from a university that also promised to award her an additional lump sum of 50,000 yuan. Before Zhou won the medals, she … Continue reading Star skates between mom and motherland

The Beijing Consensus by Stefan Halper Reviewed by Paul Wiseman The Beijing Consensus isn’t the book Stefan Halper set out to write. He intended to argue that China’s rising consumer class was challenging the Communist Party and nudging the country toward democracy, an argument that might have reassured Western readers. Alas, he writes, “The original argument didn’t survive the first draft.” What the Cambridge University political scientist ended up writing isn’t reassuring at all. The harder Halper looked at China, the more he became convinced that its ruling party would endure. And more: that China was emerging as a threat to … Continue reading Bad bet against China’s leaders

By Abubakar Siddique An unlikely voice has joined the chorus of criticism directed against the Afghan government’s commitment to civil liberties – the Taliban. In a statement issued this month, the Taliban said it considered the Afghan government’s decision to ban live war coverage, on the basis that militants were using it to their tactical advantage on the battlefield, “a flagrant violation of the recognized principle of freedom of speech”. “The monopolization of activities of independent mass media outlets by the Kabul puppet administration is a clear-cut violation of norms and regulation of neutrality, independence and liberty of speech and … Continue reading Taliban cry foul over press curbs

By Pepe Escobar The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) annual show in Washington would hardly be out of place in a Quentin Tarantino movie; picture a giant hall crammed with 7,500 very powerful people regimented by a very powerful lobby – plus half of the United States Senate and more than a third of the congress – basically calling in unison for Palestinian and Iranian blood. The AIPAC 2010 show predictably was yet one more “bomb Iran” special; but it was also a call to arms against the Barack Obama administration, as far as the turbo-charging of the illegal … Continue reading Obama squeezed between Israel and Iran

By Peter J Brown The Chinese government is probably unhappy about a new report by a Virginia-based, non-partisan think-tank called Project 2049 [1] that reveals significant and previously little known details about Base 22 in the Qinling mountains in Shaanxi province, China’s primary storage facility for nuclear weapons. Publicity about this new report – “China’s Nuclear Warhead Storage and Handling System” – first appeared in Defense News in early March. [2] One can quickly understand the reason for Beijing’s displeasure. Although the existence of this strategic storage complex in northwest China has been known for years, what has been said … Continue reading US peeks into China’s nuclear fortress

By Francesco Sisci BEIJING – Vladimir Lenin’s mark on communist theory was his book on imperialism [1], which the Russian leader considered the supreme – and thus last – phase of capitalism. After the imperialistic stage, capitalism would fall. He was wrong in many respects. Capitalism did not fall apart, and imperialism was just a stage in capitalistic evolution. Now is the time of globalization. After imperialism and post-colonialism, globalization is the most recent phase of capitalism’s (r)evolution. As at every turn of economic transformation, political paradigms are also dramatically transformed. Are old zero-sum game political theories still working, or … Continue reading Globalization yet to have its day