Given that both are state-of-the art vessels, equipped with the most sophisticated communication gear, it seems incomprehensible how these two nuclear-powered subs, bristling with ballistic missiles, could “run into each other”
It is said: What goes up, must one day come down.
Satellites launched some forty years ago into space, having outlived their utility, are now dropping out of the sky onto Earth in fiery fragments of molten metal. Continue reading »
addressed KH as ‘Guru’ simply because as a prolific and peerless writer, he was as quick with his lash as he was with his bouquets when it came to half-baked, ill equipped “writers of my ilk”. My ego is still smarting from the searing reprimand I received from him on having used this last phrase inappropriately once
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Every forest today is infested with the Taliban who are equipped with the most modern weaponry and a brutal extremist agenda to terrorise its people. Everyday brings in more of these marauders from the hills and the mountain passes. This valley is under siege
One often hears politicians of
every stripe nauseatingly proclaim every time they are near a microphone or a television camera how “every inch of Pakistan’s sovereign territory will be defended with every ounce of our blood.” Continue reading »
If Pakistan decides to play ball for its own good, fine, but if it continues to believe that it is the only conduit for supplies to US troops embedded in Afghanistan, a rethink in Islamabad might well be in order
Years ago, a young and talented singer called Billy Joel came up with a hit song that became almost an anthem. It was titled: “We didn’t start the fire”. It hit the high notes with a compendium of events that had shaped the world before us and of the brash and bold world of our times then.
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Pakistan’s gesture of bestowing the Vice President-elect with its highest civilian award is a good one. It recognises Senator Biden’s tireless efforts towards bringing civilian rule in Pakistan
Joe Biden still has a few days left to use the prefix of Senator, a prefix that he has proudly used since he was 29, when he became the youngest senator in US history. Come January 20, he will take the oath of office as Vice President Joseph Biden of the United States of America. In fact, Mr Biden will be Vice President a few minutes before Mr Barack H Obama takes his oath of office as the 44th President of the United States. Continue reading »
The year 2008 will also be remembered for some momentous events, events that will determine the way the free world conducts itself in the near future. Barack Obama’s election as the 44th President of the United States of America is one of them
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The phenomenon of an elected president being hounded out of office was incomprehensible to a young bewildered person from Pakistan in those days. I recall asking Abe Schwartz, a senior Washington attorney, what was it that President Richard Nixon had done to warrant his resignation? His answer: “He lied”
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Both India and Pakistan lack even basic civil defence facilities and the infrastructure to handle a limited strike on its cities, painfully evidenced by the terrorist attacks on the Marriott in Islamabad, and the Taj, the Oberoi and the Victoria Terminus in Mumbai
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It is incomprehensible how — despite intelligence warnings — the authorities that were in possession of such specific information failed or refused to share it with their counterparts in Pakistan, who they are now holding responsible
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There is talk of all kinds of regulatory set of rules for the Press, the bureaucracy, the legal community et al. Let there be one for politicians as well. One such rule for them should be that children, regardless of their parentage, ought never to be targeted until they have come of age and stepped into the realm of public domain of their own volition
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The other day, I asked Sanjay Siroya, a prominent gold and diamond powerhouse here in Dubai, how much gold he thought was in private hands in Pakistan. His reply stunned me
Now we all know that the halcyon days of mucho denairo or, as the Brits are prone to say, ‘loadsofmoney’ are over. Things are bad. Just how bad, the US Treasury Secretary won’t tell you, nor will the ‘Advisor to the Prime Minister’ on such matters. But a man named Hal Turner will. Continue reading »
Obama’s victory has successfully brought together the myriad wondrous colours of the rainbow that make up the United States of America in one warm embrace. Let him now stretch out to a divided world and offer his hand of friendshipAmerica welcomes a new
president and the world gets a new leader.
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There were a couple of banks that overseas investors bought, and if the truth be told, they are today being run far more efficiently and professionally than they have ever before in their chequered histories
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