Zeeshan Suhail Traditionally, just a few inches would set the city on high alert and business, schools and offices would shut down. Now NYC was doing the same, though only for one day. President Obama went so far as to humorously refer to these blizzards as “Snowmageddon” Few experiences in my life will ever rival the one I have just been through. Granted, it was a week long event, but it does not take away from the gravity of the situation we found ourselves in, here in Washington, DC. A blizzard blew into the region, beginning Friday afternoon of the … Continue reading I survived the Snowmageddon!

J Sri Raman Some in the ‘family’ may be frustrated at the relatively slow advance made towards the ‘roots’. Some, in fact, would seem to be upset at the rift within the BJP-led political camp, especially in Maharashtra, where the party has taken a public stance against staunch ally Shiv Sena’s offensive against north Indian migrants in the city “We are back, back to the roots. Heavy metal rules! We are back, back to the roots. You have got the rhythm, we have got the beat. We turn the music loud, burn in the heat. Look to the left, look … Continue reading Back to the ‘roots’?

Mohammad Jamil One should ask the Americans whether Pakistan’s top diplomats and other employees stationed in Washington are allowed take such ‘liberties’ as the American diplomats and their staffers are indulging in so freely The US has lodged a strong protest with the government of Pakistan on the arrest of some US embassy employees and impounding of their vehicles in Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi, negating the Vienna Convention. The vehicles were impounded by law enforcement agencies for using fake registration papers and number plates. The prime minister has ordered setting up a top-level inquiry committee, headed by the interior minister … Continue reading Vienna Convention and sovereign equality

Zafar Hilaly The reason why we feel reassured by the presence of big brother US around the corner in Afghanistan is the fear that the Taliban may actually prevail if succour in the form of someone with an open cheque book and appropriate weaponry was not available to compensate for the destabilisation caused to society and the economy General Kayani was being polite when he said that Pakistan and the US have different perceptions when it comes to Afghanistan. Actually, their respective perceptions are not merely different, but antithetical. In brief, Pakistan’s main concerns are: the danger posed to its … Continue reading The US presence in Afghanistan

Ayaz Amir The Pakistani non-voting middle class represents a strange phenomenon, a category waiting to be defined in some seminal work on the social sciences. This class will not be bothered to vote. It will stay aloof from the political process and will be represented in no political party. But it will bay the loudest against plummeting national values and the pressing need for immediate — almost revolutionary — change. The members of this class will, for the most part, be living in the better-off parts of our cities. Their preferred mode of transport — which sets them apart from … Continue reading The (misdirected) yearning for change

Rizwan Asghar Extremism is described as the attitude of forcibly imposing a way of life on other fellow beings in complete disregard to their beliefs. Such attitude is antithetic to democracy and pluralism irrespective of whether it is actuated by religious, political or some other considerations. A kind of liberal extremism can be witnessed nowadays in various European countries. A recent proposal by a French parliamentary commission to adopt a law banning women from wearing veil is a clear manifestation of this growing Islamophobia in Europe. The commission’s report states, “The wearing of the full veil is a challenge to … Continue reading Extremism in Europe

Anwaar Hussain His chief weapons remain an outright incitement of his followers to kill his opponents for divine rewards, promoting senseless hate, intimidating and declaring his opponents as apostates and blasphemers and twisting quotations from the Quran towards that end. THE MULLAH now holds the Pakistani society by the throat. His version of Islam has plunged Pakistan into an epidemic of honor killings, hate murders and mob executions of fellow Muslims and minorities alike. The society is paying the price for allowing the Mullah to propagate extremism and intolerance from the pulpit. There is no ordained priesthood in Islam. Every … Continue reading The Naked Truth of the Pakistani Mullahs

Antagonism between Sunni and Shia Muslims is entrenched, and there is little the state can do to quell the violence Mustafa Qadri guardian.co.uk Ordinary Pakistanis have fallen victim to a civil war largely orchestrated by forces well beyond their control. As the recent bombings targeting Shia Muslims in Karachi proves, the violence facing the country is more complex than extremists versus moderates. But how to unravel all the twists in this violent story? “The Shia are responsible for all our troubles,” one former member of the paramilitary Frontier Corps, a vital cog in Pakistan’s counterinsurgency machine, told me in the … Continue reading Pakistan’s dangerous divisions – time to get tougher on the Mullahs?

Englishness: the forbidden identity Unpleasant nationalism thrives when polite society holds its nose and treats Englishness as a white working-class problem Michael Kenny guardian.co.uk Folk artist Eliza Carthy was dismayed to find she is favoured by BNP leader Nick Griffin. Photograph: Brian Rasic / Rex Features Folk musician Eliza Carthy recently wrote of how appalled she was to find herself listed as one of BNP leader Nick Griffin’s favourite musicians. And who can blame her? But this episode goes deeper than one folk singer’s embarrassment. Griffin’s championing of English folk music is one element of a wider cultural strategy being … Continue reading English Identity: Time to assert an English Identity?

By Jawed Naqvi   The metaphor of humour was found missing at the Lahore airport in the early days of the Musharraf regime: Javed Naqvi.—File photo A colleague at Delhi’s Nehru University had a penchant for mixing up metaphors. ‘Sailing in the same soup’ was everyone’s favourite. In many ways Indians and Pakistanis have been sailing in the same soup for years. They share their destiny but they think they don’t. This is partly because one sees the other through the haze of awkward cultural metaphors. Sometimes their effort to size up the other becomes akin to predicting the last … Continue reading Of mixed cultural metaphors