By Ayesha Siddiqa The Pakistani media is playing its role by informing citizens about the threat posed by the American security contractor Blackwater. Every other day there is some news of suspicious cars being stopped by the Punjab police and the passengers being interrogated and then released under pressure from unknown and unnamed people in [...]

People wonder why the present government is not trying Gen Musharraf. Is it just due to its goodness of heart or is there something else that might be the cause of this apparently cautious behaviour? Actually, there are two issues at hand here. First is the evasiveness of the prime minister. While not making any [...]

The capital is abuzz with rumours of a minus-one formula. Some are suggesting that there is a minus-three formula. Such destabilising stories were confined to the grapevine until the information minister, followed by the Sindh chief minister, spoke about them. One must never undermine the power of the rumour mill in the capital. It works [...]

Ayesha Siddiqa As the entire Pakistani nation watches video footage of a 17-years-old girl screaming on their television screens during the process of her torture at the hands of the brutal Taliban in Swat, one wonders if the mothers, sisters, daughters and the male members of this nation will ever take time out to think [...]

DESPITE the presence of an elected government in the country, there is nervousness and unease on the streets. Those that ridicule democracy are having a field day, satisfied as they are at the thought of people getting punished for choosing leaders who have not been able to deliver and are caught up in internal disputes. [...]

  THE lashkars in the tribal areas are being touted as a great military plan to counter the Taliban. The governor of the Frontier province, Owais Ghani, for instance, was of the view that the lashkars would create minimal social disturbance, because the battle would appear to be waged by the local population rather than [...]

Is Islam antithetical to democracy and vice versa is a question that seems to have generated a lot of debate inside and outside the Muslim world. On this issue opinions are clearly divided between some of the western scholars and media gurus and their counterparts in the Muslim world. In fact, the entire debate has [...]

THESE days terrorism is a fashionable topic. The entire world seems to be involved in the war on terror, whether it is those who claim to be fighting terrorism or those who are perpetrating it. Moreover, there are opposing claims about terrorism. As the popular, albeit somewhat modified, adage goes, one man’s terrorist is another [...]

CURRENT affairs programmes on television are providing a lot of entertainment these days. A number of anchors and commentators on various channels are talking about the threat of war but not about the dark reality of conflict. Some have talked about how, in the event of hostilities intensifying, Pakistan could push the nuclear button, thus [...]

WRITING opinion pieces in a newspaper is a tricky job. While many people may agree with the opinion expressed, there are others who become extremely unhappy. There is nothing surprising about such a divide in opinion especially in a country of 160 million people. Like Unlike