3 J’s rather than 3 D’s

While the West wants the 3 D approach in AfPak (Democracy/Diplomacy, Development and Defence – see e.g. Robert Swope’s page), Nawa’i Waqt has another option: 3 J (Jamhooriyat, Jihad and Johari Silahiyat).

US “presence” in Pakistan

Financial support to Pakistan by the US is extensive, discussions about the security of the state’s personel there ongoing (here and here) but all the foreigners I see on the ground are non-US citizens. In 4 years in Lahore, Kashmir, the Northern Areas, the Tribal Areas and Peshawar I have met 4 American Nationals. I do not count my visits to horrible expat paries in Isloo with tipsy girls and tough guys or my encounter with well-built guys on the airport, who had a special escort past the queue and were obviously not here to taste Daal or learn a foreign language but to look grim and foster a clicheed, conspirational Xe-image, US citizens based in Pakistan nowadays have.

Pak Army Publicity Stunt Department

The Western media seems to buy everything from the Pakistani Publicity Stunt Department and blow it up to an even bigger extent that probably even Athar Abbas has to laught at. ABC News pays specialists (in this case Abu Muqawama) to make judgments from propaganda material, that are obvious (”they left in a hurry, otherwise [...]

pundit mayhem

Experts on AfPak sprout out of the ground like mushrooms – everyone gets his go at what it’s all really about and what should have been done in the first place or what the future will definitely look like. While one would expect, that having so many smart people around who all know so much about this place that noone really seems to understand, the picture would become more clear, the floods of opinions and predictions on the topic just make the situation worse.

on pakistani identity

Two new Pakistani Nationals and NADRA a mess: Hussein here and Malek here.

The capture of Jundullah leader Abdolmalek Rigi

Abdolmalek Rigi, the leader of Jundallah militant group, was nabbed in Iran on 23rd Feb in a dramatic fashion. His post-arrest statement and a photo allegedly showing him at a US base in Afghanistan just 24 hours before his arrest has sparked an interest debate on US role with Jundallah under Obama’s administration.

Although Pentagon spokesman [...]

Pakistan’s role in current scenario

Mushahid Hussaind Syed and Gen. (r) Hameed Gul (former DG ISI) analyse Pakistan’s role in current changing scenario in the wake of US forces’ withdrawal from Afghanistan. Watch here [Urdu].

[Satire] Change history, we don’t ride camels!

“People in the West think we live on some barren land and ride camels. We never traveled on camels. We had horses. Our history is not properly represented.”
A young lady designer, apparently Feeha Noor Jamshed, has announced that we never traveled on camels.  This we included all her designer friends, and staff of family-owned brand [...]

Illinois – Peshawar / insights from a pashtun teen

Report from a pashtun teen.

Looking for trust – in the wrong place.

The Western media, especially after Mullah Abdul Ghani Akhund and some other high-up Talibans where pinned down by ISI/CIA, are trying to understand the ISI and the Pakistani army again. When news of Ghani’s arrest broke, the first reaction was “yeah, finally they do what we want”, only to be immediately followed by “I am sure they are tricking us again” (claiming that the ISI captured him in Karachi making sure he could be kept in their custody and wouldn’t be interrogated by ISAF/CIA at Bagram, Penetta yesterday requested a transfer there)