ANALYSIS: Sarmad lives on —Mir Mohammad Ali Talpur Sarmad lives on as the epitome of an indomitable fighter and intrepid spirit and intellect that challenges bigotry, calls the tyrant’s bluff and exposes him. He symbolises the fearless defiance of the brutal power wielded by rulers and states Sarmad was an Armenian Jew from Kashaan who accepted Islam. Well-versed in Arabic, he had profound knowledge of the subjects in vogue then. His quatrains demonstrate the profundity of his grasp of both worldly and religious knowledge. He went to trade in Hindustan, but lost his heart to Abhay Chand, son of a … Continue reading Sarmad lives on

VIEW: The king and ‘I’ —Andleeb Abbas When the ‘I’ becomes bigger than the ‘We’, the writing on the wall predicts doom. However, the writing is visible to only those who have a vision to see beyond their egos; this moral blindness is a virus, which infiltrates into each organ and like a carcinoma cell destroys the living functionality of the organ itself Some tragedies move mountains; the heartrending scenes of the plane crash and the shocking haplessness of people trapped in unstoppable floods are enough to make all who ‘feel’ try to get out of their comfort zone and … Continue reading As ‘I’ becomes bigger than the ‘We’ a nation dies

Plugging the WikiLeak: What can US government do? Wikileaks founder Julian Assange holds up a copy of the Guardian newspaper during a press conference at the Frontline Club in central London, July 26, 2010. – Reuters Photo WASHINGTON: An online whistle-blower’s threat to release more classified Pentagon and State Department documents is raising hard questions of what the US government can or would do, legally, technically or even militarily to stop it. Constrained by the massive reach of the Internet, sophisticated encryption software and the domestic legal system, the answer seems to be: Not much. If the US government believes … Continue reading “Insurance” on WikiLeaks

Generation Axe by Nadeem F. Paracha It does pain me to see a lot of ground-level PPP workers being pushed into a corner by their party leader’s nonchalant ways. They seem and sound helpless and exhausted in trying to defend their leader who has become the target of an obsessive-compulsive punching campaign of the media. However, though the president does not seem to be bothered by the campaign, he must realize that there are many of his party workers who are being seriously affected. More than this, he should also realize that the media is targeting these very workers because … Continue reading Time to throw shoes at Mullah Diesel?

BOOK REVIEW: Business with a catch —by Afrah Jamal Building Social Business: The New Kind of Capitalism That Serves Humanity’s Most Pressing Needs By Muhammad Yunus with Karl Weber PublicAffairs; Pp 256; Rs 1,795 In the early 1970s when an academician from a third world country came across the victims of a moneylender, he did what good Samaritans usually do in such circumstances: he took charge, paid off their small loan, securing a temporary release. Then the academician did something many probably would not have done. He decided to put the affected community members (residing in rural Bangladesh) in charge … Continue reading Building Social Business

IEW: Has our foreign policy failed? —Mohammad Jamil Though a majority of political parties and leaders in Pakistan wish to have cordial relations with the US and the west, a great number of people do not like the way they resort to arm-twisting and using a long stick and a short carrot Our foreign policy has been susceptible to manipulation because of internal political and economic instability brought about by flawed policies of successive governments that looked towards western nations or the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB) for aid and loans. Our dependency syndrome has been … Continue reading Pakistan foreign policy failed?

COMMENT: Tackling the roots —Zain Murtaza Maken I believe that we, as a nation, have closed the doors of our minds to reason and contemplation. Adding to this problem is our lack of personal heroes and figures that could function as beacons of light for our minds The biggest problem facing Pakistan is not the militants, or the economic and political policies. The architecture of fear that surrounds us should not worry us as much as the roots that uphold it. The roots that support the whole structure of terror are inevitably nourished by our choices that are, in turn, … Continue reading Tackling the roots

‘Separate’ is the most commonly misspelt word in the English language, according to a new study. Published: 11:26AM BST 06 Aug 2010 telegraph.co.uk One in five said it was their belief the art of spelling was something ‘you just learn in school’. Photo: GETTY The eight-letter word came top due to the regular placing of an ‘E’ where the first ‘A’ sits. Second in the list was ‘definitely’, which often falls victim to a string of mistakes including mixing up the second ‘I’ with an ‘A’. Another common error is dropping the final ‘E’. ‘Manoeuvre’, which is problematic due to … Continue reading ‘Separate’ is most commonly misspelt word

Al-Qaeda’s new ‘planning chief’ lived in US for 15 years The FBI has warned that al-Qaeda’s new head of “global operational planning” is using his unprecedented familiarity with American society to plot attacks against the United States and other Western countries. by Alex Spillius in Washington telegraph.co.uk Adnan Shukrijumah Photo: FBI Investigators believe that Adnan Shukrijumah, 35, is “extremely dangerous” in part because of the experience he can draw on having lived in the US for 15 years. Shukrijumah has taken over a position once held by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of the September 11 World Trade Center attacks, … Continue reading Al-Qaeda ‘planning chief’ lived in US

Photography and nature’s frame Nature photography appeals to our nostalgia for a time when we were more in harmony with the planet Parvati Nair guardian.co.uk, Friday 6 August 2010 12.45 BST Article history ‘Fallow buck at dawn’ by Ben Hall, winner of the habitat section of the British wildlife photography awards. Photograph: Ben Hall/PAThe old adage “a picture is worth a thousand words” needs to be rethought. More importantly, a picture can have the power to move a thousand hearts and change a thousand minds. Often, photographs bring to our eyes what we may have seen many times before, but … Continue reading a picture is worth a thousand words