The Londoner

By Sikander Hayat  Fawad Alam played a masterful innings in the first innings of the first Test match against South Africa in Karachi . He scored 109 runs, played 245 balls and stayed on the wicket for 353 minutes in a mammoth effort to bring Pakistan back into the Test match at Karachi cricket stadium . There were no fans in the stadium to enjoy this innings live but Fawad Alam proved yet again that his exclusion from Pakistan Cricket Team for last ten years was a big mistake and that Pakistan wasted a major talent by pursuing wrong selection policies. Fawad Alam is now 35 years old and can only serve Pakistan like Misbah for another few years if he stays fit and keeps scoring but he has been successful in at least doing one thing and that is to prove that he is an international level talent who should never have been dropped from Pakistan after one series in which he scored a big hundred against Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka.  Fawad Alam was ably support by Muhammad Rizwan and...

By Sikander Hayat Kashmir is slowly being gobbled up by India by ethinic cleansing and population transfer from the rest of India to Kashmir. Pakistan’s options are limited in terms of taking it back from India through an open armed conflict given the disparity between the two countries in terms of economy and resources. Pakistan can only play a long game by improving its economy, get richer, have good relations with richer/influential nations and wait for the Kashmiris to fight for their right of self determination .  Pakistan has made some good progress in terms of constitutional clarity for the people of Gilgit Balistan and Azad Kashmir both of which are effectively now fifth and sixth provinces of Pakistan. Azad Kashmir is now a semi autonomous region with its own President ( Masood Khan ) , Prime Minister ( Raja Farooq Haider Khan ) and Supreme Court. Azad Kashmir has its own constitution to provide international clarity in terms of status of Indian occupied Kashmir vis ...

By Sikander Hayat I needed to apply for a smart NICOP for my son and went to Pakistan Embassy with the required documents. You need to book an appointment before turning up at the embassy. The web address for booking the appointment is   http://www.phclondon.org/appointments/  . The address for London embassy is 34-36 Lowndes Square, London SW1X 9JN . The nearest tube station is Knightsbridge. I had an appointment at 1500 hours and reached there with the appointment confirmation printout. You need to have you the following docs with you if you are a British National You appointment printout Your original detailed birth certificate & photocopy British Passport & photocopy Pakistani passport of your parents and photocopy If your parents do not have the passport than their NICOP and photocopy There are six steps to the process : You meet first team which confirms that you actually have an appointment and check that you have t...

Famous qawali singer Amjad Sabri has been murdered in Karachi. At the moment motives of the murderers are unknown and it is not known who has committed this heinous act. Pakistan is a dangerous place for anyone but for people who are well known, it can be a hellhole. Son of Chief Justice Sindh High Court has been abducted couple of days with his future in deep uncertainty and now Amjad Sabri has been killed.  In a normal country one can think of reasons for such oppression but in Pakistan there are so many different actors at work that it is near impossible to find out the identity of the culprit or their reason for such barbarity. Amjad Sabri was a singer and it is hard to think what wrong he did to upset anyone. Most of his singing was about the praise of Allah and his prophet and still he was not good enough to be allowed to live. Was this a case of extortion related killing, religiously motivated or politics had something to do with it, is currently unknown.  H...

Home  -   A bomb explosion in a market has killed 22 minority Shia Muslims and wounded 45 others in Pakistan’s Kurram tribal region near the Afghan border, officials said. The bomb exploded on Sunday when the market in the town of Parachinar was crowded with shoppers, said Mahtab Hussain, a local government official. Husain said some of the critically wounded people were airlifted to hospitals in other cities. All 22 killed were minority Shia Muslims, said another local government official, Nek Mohammad. The explosion was caused by a remote-controlled bomb planted in the market, the two officials said. Parachinar is the main town in Kurram, a predominantly Shia area that has been troubled by Islamic militant and sectarian violence. Pakistan’s military has carried out regular operations in the region to eliminate militants and control sectarian strife. Read the full story here. 

A day from today, more than seven million voters in Karachi will choose to exercise their right of electing a local representative who will manage their issues of basic governance. But it is not simple as that. This is Karachi; dynamic and volatile, where even matters of basic governance come with a great amount of baggage, be it from the way local governments have been formed and managed in the past or from political quarters that directly impact the performance of candidates elected on local government posts. The News sat down with key leaders of the four major political stakeholders — Waseem Akhtar of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, Hafiz Naeem-ur-Rehman of the Jamaat-e-Islami, Ali Zaidi of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and Najmi Alam of the Pakistan People’s Party — and discussed with them their expectations and fears for beyond whatever happens on December 5. Below are the leaders’ exclusive responses to a common set of questions which mostly pertain to matters of basic govern...