Sixty-two years after his assassination, some of Mahatma Gandhi’s ashes, held in secret for decades by a family friend, are scattered at sea off the city of Durban. Participating in the final immersion rites are great grandaughters Asha and Ashish, grandaughter Ela Gandhi, great grandson Kidar Gandhi and grandson Satish Dhupelia. —AFP Photo DURBAN: Ashes of India’s independence hero Mahatma Gandhi, kept for decades by a family friend after his assassination, were scattered Saturday off South Africa’s coast, his family said. “About 200 people attended. Everything went well, it was a beautiful ceremony,” said Ela Gandhi, granddaughter of the apostle … Continue reading Gandhi’s ashes scattered off South African coast

By Irfan Husain To be fair, Asif Zardari made a good start, surprising many by his efforts to create an inclusive alliance. –Photo by APP It isn’t often that I agree with Nawaz Sharif. However, when he said a few weeks ago that the PPP was its own worst enemy, he put his finger on the problem this government has faced since it was sworn in nearly two years ago. This was in response to Asif Zardari’s charge that he and his government were being targeted by ‘non-state actors’. Other PPP figures darkly alluded to the possibility of an army … Continue reading Power, perceptions and the PPP

Dawn Editorial Afghan President Hamid Karzai (R) shakes hands with Britain’s Foreign Minister David Miliband (2nd R) as Britain’s Prime Minister Gordon Brown (L) and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (2nd L) applaud him during the Opening Session of the Afghanistan Conference in London. –AFP Photo/Matt Dunham Is peace with the Taliban really possible? Going by what transpired in London on Thursday, the Afghan government and its western allies believe that a negotiated settlement is indeed the way forward. The idea, in essence, is to divide the insurgents in Afghanistan by winning over a bloc of ostensibly war-weary leaders and luring … Continue reading London summit

China blocks US military visits over Taiwan arms deal Beijing argued again on Saturday that the arms sales violated the US commitment to Beijing’s “One China policy”. — Photo by Reuters BEIJING: Beijing has suspended visits between the Chinese and US armed forces in protest at Washington’s plan to sell weapons worth 6.4 billion dollars to Taiwan, state media said Saturday. The defence ministry official in charge of foreign affairs, Qian Lihua, had summoned the US Embassy in Beijing’s defence attache on Saturday afternoon to complain about the arms deal, the official Xinhua news agency reported. Defence officials were not … Continue reading US encouraging Chinese-Taiwanese tension via arms deal?

The Rise in Fundamentalism By: Grainne Rhuad In fundamentalism one holds that one’s religious texts are infallible and historically accurate, despite contradiction of these claims by modern scholarship. In 1994in Qandahar, when Afghanistan was plagued by civil war as well as facing Russia, the world began to take note of a sect of religiously based seekers, in fact the  name  “Taliban” translates to “One who is seeking” This religious fervor was nothing new, there has ever been in every religious tradition waves of people who think outside the box or conversely too deeply within the box. While there is no … Continue reading The Randy Taliban Mullah and the Frisky Southern Baptist – partners ripe for a formal marriage!

Book review: Nuclear Pakistan — setting the record straight, again —by Afrah Jamal The Genesis of South Asian Nuclear Deterrence: Pakistan’s Perspective By Naeem Salik Oxford University Press; Pp 350 Going nuclear is a lifestyle choice. For the original five, it was a vital symbol of power. For Pakistan, it is a necessary evil. With three nuclear powers in the region, Pakistan is the only one that gives the world sleepless nights. As their least favourite (aspiring) club member, Pakistan is used to being eyed with suspicion and treated with disdain. Naeem Salik believes that current debates on Pakistan’s nuclear … Continue reading The Genesis of South Asian Nuclear Deterrence: Pakistan’s Perspective

Farhat Taj The Pakistan Army is engaged in ‘friendly fire’ with the jihadi gangs in which the civilians, poor soldiers of the security forces, especially FC soldiers, policemen and foot soldiers of the Taliban are killed. This, according to the Pakhtun perception, is in line with the scheme of things of the military-militant leadership I have been writing in these pages that there is a remarkable difference in the perceptions of the people of Pakhtunkhwa, including FATA, and the majority of people in the rest of Pakistan with regard to what drives terrorism in our country. For the latter, it … Continue reading Dangerous abyss of perceptions that excuse Pakistans rabid Mullahs

Ernest Mandel In Primitive Rebels and Bandits, Eric Hobsbawm has shown that ‘social bandits’ are robbers of a special type, whom the state (and the oppressor classes) regard as outlaws but who remain within the bounds of the moral order of the peasant community. It is significant that Spain, the country that gave the bandit story its name as a literary genre — the picaresque novel — was where the decay of feudalism was deepest and where the process of its decline was more protracted, leaving society in an impasse for centuries. Interestingly, Sigmund Freud showed great preference for good … Continue reading From hero to villain