On being considered a Taliban…
Earlier this week, Rangers personnel cordoned off Kunwari Colony, a Pashtun-dominated area in Manghopir, Karachi. The area is inhabited mostly by people belonging to the Mehsud tribe that hails mainly from Waziristan. The Rangers banned the exit of all and sundry from the colony with the help of police. They then started a door-to-door operation arresting anyone they found to be suspect; tied their hands, covered their faces and put them into trucks. More than 1,500 were booked and shifted to undisclosed places. Most of them are daily wage labourers and road-side vendors who sell scrap items or fruits. Later some ...
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Dear liberals, speak up!
In my two and a half years in the US, I haven’t met a single Republican. An overwhelming majority of the Americans I have spoken to are apologetic about the drone attacks in Pakistan, were appalled by the “Ground Zero” mosque crisis, despise the Tea Party movement and don’t understand Republicans’ repeated attacks against health care reform. This category of opinion is in large part echoed by liberal columnists and pundits that we even follow back home. I, therefore, find it interesting to reconcile what I witnessed in the November 2 elections with what I know of my personal experience ...
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Parachinar: the valley of massacre
Parachinar was once paradise on earth but it has been burning in the fires of terrorism for years. The prices of commodities have sky-rocketed, poverty has made life hellish, and hospitals lack medicines and facilities. All roads leading out of the area are blocked and there is little communication with the outside world. Life has been paralyzed. The entire area is rife with aggressive sentiments in response to extremism – revenge, rebellion and sectarianism. Situations like this can cause revolutions that have the potential to shake even stable countries. Nine years in to the war on terror and tensions in Fata ...
Read Full PostFATA, overlooked, ignored
Sixty three years have gone by but Pakistan could neither bring FATA in the mainstream of the country, politically or constitutionally nor improved the life of common man there. Twenty first century’s innovations, permutations, novelties, upgraded lifestyle, scientific developments and many more have nothing to do with life of the people of tribal areas of Pakistan. They are living in the Stone Age with warfare, humiliations, lack of health and educational facilities. While the rest of the country looks to evolve human rights, the people of FATA are being ruled by archaic black law of FCR under which a common government ...
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