News Articles

 Press Relase - Iftihkar Hussain - PTI Karachi Read more...

PUSH (Press United to Serve Humanity) Condemns Brutal Torture by Bhawana Police   ISLAMABAD: Press United to Serve Humanity (PUSH), a Pakistan-based non-profit, non-government consortium of journalists working for the freedom of press and human rights, condemns the inhuman torture by Punjab police on persons accused of robbery.   Read more...

The British began their domination of the Indian subcontinent via the East India Company. This commercial entity, originally there from the 1600s to trade with the region, slowly began leading to the need to have a private militia there to protect its interests. By the late 1700s, the British had a regular army there to look after their assets and by the mid 1800s these foreign exploitative colonialists had completely replaced the previously resident ruling system and had taken over the running of the entire subcontinent for themselves. In doing so the British had demonstrated how the concept of ‘divide and rule’ can be applied successfully in a country and used to split the population along religious, political and ethnic lines. Today the US is following in similar footsteps. It first entered the AfPak area on similar prerogatives after 9/11; it was sold to the world, and in particular the Pakistani nation via the then puppet Musharraf government, that the US had to move into the area to address its security Read more...

To most Westerners, Pakistan is a turbulent and dangerous place but to British universities it's an attractive market in which to expand. A number have launched degree courses there in recent weeks, lured by the promise of large numbers of students – it has 100 million people under the age of 25 – and the desire to compete on the global stage. "We think there is a big market in that country," says Professor Mark Cleary, vice-chancellor of Bradford University, which started seven degree programmes at a Namal College in Pakistan in October 2009 near the geographically remote tribal territories. "Pakistan is a very challenging place but this is about giving something back to a country from which we recruit a lot of students directly."
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RAWALPINDI, Pakistan - With his white turban, untrimmed beard and worn army jacket, the man known uniformly here by his nom de guerre, Col. Imam, is a particular Pakistani enigma. A United States-trained former colonel in Pakistan's spy agency, he spent 20 years running insurgents in and out of Afghanistan, first to fight the Soviet Army, and later to support the Taliban, as Pakistani allies, in their push to conquer Afghanistan in the 1990s.  Today those Taliban forces are battling his onetime mentor, the United States, and Western officials say Colonel Imam has continued to train, recruit and finance the insurgents. Along with a number of other retired Pakistani intelligence officials, they say, he has helped the Taliban stage a remarkable comeback since 2006.  In two recent interviews with The New York Times, Colonel Imam denied that. But he remains a vocal advocate of the Taliban, and his views reveal the sympathies that have long run deep in the ranks of Pakistan's military and intelligence services.  De Read more...

One of the problems with the U.S.-Pakistan relationship over the decades has been that the two sides tend to fall in and out of love like a tempestuous couple, rather than maintain a steady and dependable bond. So it's wise to approach recent talk about a new strategic breakthrough with some caution and skepticism.    In the upbeat White House version, the first big success for the Obama administration's new Afghanistan policy has come not in the battle of Marja in Helmand province but in Islamabad. Officials cite Pakistan's cooperation with the CIA in capturing and interrogating top leaders of the Afghan Taliban, and Pakistan's new dialogue with India.   Pakistani officials agree that there has been a positive change in mood. They say the Obama administration has taken quiet steps to reassure Islamabad that the United States doesn't want to grab Pakistan's nuclear weapons and that it isn't trying to smuggle in covert operators disguised as U.S. contractors. "It's about getting back to trusting each other," Read more...

I had posted an article on my blog and also circulated it through emails that I do on weekly basis. Usually the response to such articles is mild and sober even if someone disagrees with the entire or partial assertion and contents. But of late, in response to my article, “My Perception of Islam” a Hindu believer G. Vishvas wrote the following note and I quote,
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ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Inside a secret detention center in an industrial pocket of the Pakistani capital called I/9, teams of Pakistani and American spies have kept a watchful eye on a senior Taliban leader captured last month. With the other eye, they watch each other.  The C.I.A. and its Pakistani counterpart, the Directorate of Inter-Services Intelligence, have a long and often tormented relationship. And even now, they are moving warily toward conflicting goals, with each maneuvering to protect its influence after the shooting stops in Afghanistan.  Yet interviews in recent days show how they are working together on tactical operations, and how far the C.I.A. has extended its extraordinary secret war beyond the mountainous tribal belt and deep into Pakistan's sprawling cities.  Beyond the capture of Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, C.I.A. operatives working with the ISI have carried out dozens of raids throughout Pakistan over the past year, working from bases in the cities of Quetta, Peshawar and elsewhere, ac Read more...

A stigmatized life is the most traumatized life. A stigmatized person carries with him shame, calumny, slur, disrespect, aversion and hatred from others. Such a person is treated   by the community to be a social pariah while in return he or she turns mostly apologetic or aggressive.  It depends upon the level of the sensibilities of a person, how much miserable or wretched he or she feels or how they take the stigma attached to them.  But not all stigmas are factual. Some are fabricated for maligning others or for vendetta. Some are genuine and some germinate from misunderstanding. These misunderstandings are caused by a word, phrase, joke or a comment that can be interpreted both negatively and positively leading to the appreciation or aspersion on one’s character.
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LAHORE: Tehreek-e-Insaf Chief Imran Khan Sunday aurged Nawaz Sharif to ‘quit friendly opposition and fulfill his responsibility towards protection of people’s rights’.

Speaking to a press conference here at the party’s central office, the TI Chief said all the opposition parties should take a joint delegation to the US for the release of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui. They should also join with them the people of the US, he added.

The British female journalist who had embraced Islam during her captivity with the Taliban was also present on the occasion along with other senior leaders of TI.

Imran Khan said the conviction of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui following her extradition has caused great humiliation to Pakistan. “Had this case be made public in the US, it would have triggered protests there,” he said. Read more...

LAHORE: Tehreek-e-Insaaf Chief Imran Khan said Pakistan needs change, as the present system will not impart education and employment to the youth, Geo News reported Sunday.

Addressing the public gathering in connection with the electoral campaign in NA-123 constituency, he said the expenses of foreign tours of the Prime Minister and the President House are paid by the poor people; contrarily, the rulers move their assets abroad to evade the tax net.

Imran Khan said Nawaz Sharif never criticized the drone attacks, as his assets are also in the US. Read more...

Disappointment at the result of NA 55 is only natural. All of us are saddened by the outcome.There were numerous factors responsible for this, some out of our control. Where we have been lacking as an organization, will be addressed and discussed in detail, so as to learn from our mistakes. Read more...

Dear All,  Yesterday’s defeat was definitely depressing for all of us and equally for those of us who had put our blood and soul into it but lets start behaving like a mature political party and stop this blame game and these wild accusations in all directions. All this will achieve is to demoralize those people who put in so much hard work and those who had so many expectations from our party. We intend to do a thorough and deep analysis of this disappointment and come up with an accurate analysis which will help us overcome our shortcomings for the real election which is the General Elections. Lets not put our hands up and get demoralized at the first set back instead we should pick ourselves up, face and deal with our shortcomings and get ready for battle again.
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Islamabad: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) central leadership condemning the use of state machinery by the Punjab government to rig the NA-55 by-polls said that the Punjab rulers played havoc with the electoral politics just for its vested interests. The Punjab government not only used the state machinery but also allowed its workers to work under the patronization of law enforcing agencies to ensure the rigging plan. Police, workers, fake voters and lawlessness was openly witnessed in the electoral constituency of NA-55. Read more...

The unofficial results continue to pour in. According to unofficial results of 221 polling stations PML N 73,766 votes
AML 46,022
JI   - 4500
PTI - 3500     Read more...

BHANUCHAK, PAKISTAN -- Before creation of the India-Pakistan border split their villages in half in 1947, Muslim, Hindu and Sikh families here lived and farmed together. But today they can't even see one another through a fortified border covered with razor wire and guarded by soldiers in sandbagged bunkers. They also can't see how this week's U.S.-backed peace talks between India and Pakistan will do any good.  Lal Jha, 40, won a border contest between India and Pakistan for the best truck design. Truck drivers say it is more popular these days to paint their trucks in national colors. (Emily Wax/The Washington Post)   "The Americans want India and Pakistan to be friends," said Badudrin, a 74-year-old Pakistani farmer, standing near a golden field of mustard flowers. "There are too many issues. It's not meant to be. It's not our history. It's not our future."  Reducing those entrenched tensions between the two nuclear-armed rivals is a centerpiece of the Obama administration's foreign policy amid Read more...

Adam Holloway: An end to steely-eyed killing machines
The old Bush/Blair mantras obscured a grim reality - we created the insurgency and cannot reduce it by sending in more troops
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System! System! System! Asif Ali Zardari and  Sayyed Yusuf Raza Gilani inordinately talk about it, sometimes its being in danger and sometime reassuring that no threat is there to it.  Maulana Fazlurehman seems extremely pined away in grief every time thinking about it. Feelings of desolation keep descending on Asfand Yar Wali about the safety of the system. Worries about its continuance constantly hunt Altaf Hussain, so no day goes without his appeals to shield it. Sharifs are in firm resolve not to let its survival get damaged and make us believe at daily basis that they will stand like iron wall to protect the system. Choudries of Gujrat too assure they will not allow derail the system and will come with crutches to bolster if it got tottered. What actually this ‘entity’ is only for it our ever-clashing politicians fall in with each other and are harmonious to defend it?
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On a chilly afternoon in western Loudoun County, a group of children used tweezers to extract rodent bones from a regurgitated owl pellet. A boy built a Lego launcher. A girl practiced her penmanship. On the wall, placards read, "I fast in Ramadan," "I pay zakat" and "I will go on hajj."  More Muslims turning to home schools Although three-quarters of the country's estimated 2 million home-schoolers identify themselves as Christian, a growing number of Muslims also are choosing to home-school their children. Welcome to Priscilla Martinez's home -- and her children's school, where Martinez is teacher, principal and guidance counselor, and where the credo "Allah created everything" is taught alongside math, grammar and science.  Martinez and her six children, ages 2 to 12, are part of a growing number of Muslims who home-school. In the Washington area, Martinez says, she has seen the number of home-schoolers explode in the past five years.   Although three-quarters of the nation's estimated 2 million
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The American Vulture has Landed  
The British began their domination of the Indian subcontinent via the East India Company. This commercial entity, originally there from the 1600s to trade with the region, slowly began leading to the need to have a private militia there to protect its interests. By the late 1700s, the British had a regular army there to look after their assets and by the mid 1800s these foreign exploitative colonialists had completely replaced the previously resident ruling system and had taken over the running of the entire subcontinent for themselves. In doing so the British had demonstrated how the concept of ‘divide and rule’ can be applied successfully in a country and used to split the population along religious, political and ethnic lines.
  Read more...