“The Youth in Iraq have a mad stare of despair on their faces. They have seen nothing, but Sanctions and War.” These were the words of a UN official stationed in the International Zone in Baghdad back in 2011. This month, there have been massive protests in different parts of...
Pakistan has no plans to join Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE in severing ties with Doha. Since June 5, Pakistan has faced what amounts to Hobson’s choice. Saudi Arabia has been asking its fellow Sunni Muslim ally: Are you with Qatar or with us? While Islamabad has expressed...
Will Saudi Arabia’s Muslim coalition to fight terrorism succeed in its aim? The Saudi-led coalition to combat terrorism in the Muslim world — notwithstanding its diplomatic and economic bolstering by the Trump administration — will continue to persist as an extravagant delusion for several reasons. It was in December 2015...
Ever since a “monster” was unleashed in the 1970s, terrorism and sectarianism have been a regular occurrence in Pakistan. Growing up in Lahore in the 1960s and 1970s, there were hardly any organized attacks on public institutions as we now see in present-day Pakistan. Sure, we heard about the atrocities committed...
The Pakistani parliament’s resolution on Yemen served to remind the GCC that Pakistan is a South Asian Muslim power, not an Arab one. Aitzaz Ahsan, a prominent member of Pakistan’s opposition, once wrote: “We [Pakistan] are, and very much remain, a South Asian Muslim country: sharing aspirations and history with...
