Reflections

Pakistan is facing new realities. It’s once staunch ally; it’s great guarantor & savior, the United States of America has changed the direction of its gun and is now pointing it towards Pakistan. Once again, the West and the Allied forces have raped Pakistan’s sovereignty through indiscriminate use of artillery force by two NATO helicopters and this is not the first time such an incident has happened. NATO violated the sovereignty of Pakistan 5 times towards the end of 2010. Before Pakistan decides on its course of action, it is important that the current international relations scenario is looked at from a couple of perspectives. Firstly, Regime Change, the tool the United States has for so long successfully used to maintain its dominance over the world doesn’t seem to be an option for it due to the fragmented political landscape of the country with most of the parties with no inclination to the West. The only political force that would have been somewhat compliant would have been...

I often feel hat I'm not as old as my age suggests :p. But then everyone probably feels that way; staying in denial about them ageing and wanting to stay young and cool and not become "uncle, aunts". Well, I have finally come across he latest development in development psychology which actually lend credence to the way I feel. Adults in the west are now crossing the 5 stages of adulthood a lot slower than before. Baby boomers used to get across education, moving out, finding a job, getting married and having kids stages earlier in life than generation Y are doing today. A few decades back, 2/3 of 30 year olds would have crossed all these stages; today only half of 30 year olds do. Various socio economic and cultural factors contribute to this " changing timetable of adulthood" and they are making the cases for the recognition in psychology of an additional stage in life : emerging adulthood. Throughout the 19th century, there had been only been infancy, chi...

Test match cricket is cricket in it’s pristine form, but most cricket fans would agree that it is for a particular niche of followers only. However, unfortunately, even this niche is losing interest in test cricket today. This is primarily because a reasonable number of test matches still end up in a draws and that test matches often produce certain periods of play that are extremely dull.   As such, certain steps should be taken in order to address these factors. Firstly, the criteria used in one dayers for declaring a ball ‘wide’ should be adopted in test matches also. Why should a bowler in a test match be allowed to ball a line that is beyond the batsman’s reach? Making this criterion strict will cause the bowlers to bowl closer to the batsmen more often, thereby making the batsman to play at the ball more often. Secondly, there should be 2 fielders in catching position at all times in a test innings and there shouldn’t be more than 3 fielders allowed outside the 15 yard circle...

As Pakistan continues with its efforts to get member ship in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, one wonders what significance does an organization like SCO have anyways. It has members such as Russia, China and some resource rich Central American states such as Kyrgistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.   Apart from the Uzbekistan, all these members had been part of the Shanghai Five formed in 1966 but then it was re-launched with Uzbekistan as an additional member in 2001. Other countries have had observer status including Pakistan.   Although its members hold 60% of the mass of Eurasia and a quarter of world’s population, SCO has really been nothing more than a neighborhood club. It really exists as a response to NATO so that an alliance which can represent the East against the West could be there. Infact it has once already declined US request for membership.   But in today’s times, all that there could be to a Regional organization is economic cooperation...

As a Pakistani, there have been several aspects of this operation that have simply confounded me, while there have been others that have re-affirmed what i already know. So Osama bin Laden was hiding in Pakistan & was gunned down in a high precision operation that can only be described as flawless. Not an outrageous surprise. We've thought for long that it is very much possible that OBL has been hiding here. However, what is surprising is the fact that he was hiding in Abbotabad, a place with significant military presence due to Kakool military academy. I think we all expected him to be in the tribal belt instead, if at all he was in pakistan. More surprising has been the fact that he was hiding in a huge mansion which was one of a kind in abbotabad. Assuming that ISI knew about his presence and/or had been protecting him all along, why would it place him in such a distinctly obvious hideout? On the other hand, if the ISI didnt know about his presence, then how ine...

I was just watching a new yet typical controversy coming up with Ayesha Ahad , the daughter of an ex PML N politician who then joined the ranks of PML Q, claiming that Shahbaz Sharif’s son , Hamza Shahbaz, had secretly married her and then mistreated her; put her in prison etc etc. When the journalist asked why for so long Ayesha Ahad had not come up with the evidence and why she has now chosen to do so, her Mom was found to be short of answers. The answer is that this is yet another one of the various initiatives that Zardari has taken to dent PML N and its electorate. Already in a master move, he supported Imran Khan in Punjab and simultaneously got the backing of MQM to also hurl criticism at PML N. Until a few days back it was being assumed that it would almost certainly result in PPP losing the upcoming elections and that PML N would be in a position to form a coalition government. But the master politician that Zardari is, he has changed the situation on its head. PML N will now...