The Londoner

By Sikander Hayat Pakistan faces a distinct lack of a party which has a universal appeal in all parts of the country and which contest elections on issues not the ethnicity. Pakistan Peoples Party played this role for many years but due to rampant corruption by its rank & file and bad governance , its popularity is now limited to rural Sindh . 2013 elections will signal the way party goes in terms of its universal popularity but the current trends show that a heavy election defeat is on the cards for the party which will limit it to the rural areas of Sindh with some possible seats in South Punjab . Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf has the potential to replace PPP as the party of all six provinces but until the electoral process proves this, we have to stick to the make up of the current parliament. Text books might not agree but Pakistan currently has six provinces & two federal areas: Punjab Sindh Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Baluchistan Gilgit Baltistan Azad Kashmir Federal...

“I don’t think today is that day,” Jay Carney, the White House Press Secretary, said on Friday. He was responding to a question about gun control and the shooting in an elementary school in Connecticut that reportedly claimed the lives of twenty-six people —including twenty children between the ages of five and ten years old, as well as that of the shooter and, separately, one of the shooter’s parents. (The reports about what exactly happened are still somewhat shaky and unconfirmed. It’s likely that, as in most situations like this, some of what we now think we know will turn out to have been wrong. I will update this post as the day goes on.) Carney’s response was a predictable one. This is the way that we deal with such incidents in the U.S.—we acknowledge them; we are briefly shocked by them; then we term it impolite to discuss their implications, and to argue about them. At some point, we will have to stop putting it off, stop pretending that doing so is th...

President Asif Ali Zardari , in Dubai for nearly two weeks for medical treatment, may return to Pakistan on Sunday night, two sources familiar with the president's travel plans said. "He will fly out tonight (Sunday night)... he will leave in about two to three hours," a worker from Zardari's Pakistan People's Party told Reuters. "He is perfectly fine now and was just waiting for the doctors to give him a go ahead to travel." Another Pakistani source in Dubai said Zardari was expected to leave later on Sunday but gave no specific time for the departure. They said Zardari was flying back to Pakistan but did not say whether he would land in Islamabad or Karachi . Read the full story here. 

By Sikander Hayat PTI chariman Imran Khan is declaring his assets in Pakistan. He says that he has nothing to hide. He asked Nawaz Sharif and Asif Zardari and all other major leaders to declare their assets. He calls on the media wing of both parties to stop lying and declare their own assets before defaming   Shaukat Khanum Hospital . Imran Khan said that he was never in government so he has no way of squandering public money whereas other parties currently in power in Pakistan have corruption running in their veins and people like Hanif Abbasi who have made billions of rupees by selling counterfeit drugs will be sued in court of law to make sure that truth comes out. Meanwhile Shah Mehmood Qureshi has been made vice chairman of Pakistan Tekreek -e- Insaaf.

By Sikander Hayat Since Hasina Wajid has come to power in Bangladesh, relations with Pakistan are steadily going downhill. Pakistan has no borders with Bangladesh , there is no water or land issue and there is no reason for the Bangladeshis to keep hating Pakistan. A different generation of Pakistanis was responsible for the separation of Bangladesh and whatever took place in 1971. If a country wants better relations with another country, she will do that despite any issues and if a country wants to pick a fight than again it does not need a reason. Currently, Hasina Wajid's government is trying to rake up dirt at every possible moment. Here are some of the issues which this government is using to make sure that they always use Pakistan as a safe whipping boy: 1. War reparations2. Apology for civil war in East Pakistan3. Division of assets4. Opposing Pakistan at the WTO 5. Treason trial against those who supported the united Pakistan ( East & West) One can un...

By Sikander Hayat Today PTI conducted a jalsa in Ghotki, where Shah Mehmood Qureshi joined them. This is same Shah Mehmood who was Finance Minister of Punjab in the government of PML(N). He left Pakistan Muslim League and joined Pakistan Peoples Party and became foreign minister of Pakistan. He was also the Nazim of Multan in the time of Pervez Musharaf. His father Sajjad Hussain Qureshi was the Governor of Punjab in 1985 under the Martial Law government of General Zia-Ul-Haq. To keep the long story short, what I am trying to say is that this person and his family has been eternally in governing structures of Pakistan. Bringing him into the fold of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf will test the resolve of Imran Khan as the leader of the party and as the head of this anti corruption movement. These people are the feudal lords of Pakistan and want to keep governing the peasants in one way or another. Shah Mehmood saw very clearly in which direction the wind was blowing and was despera...

‭BBC Urdu‬ - ‮پاکستان‬ - ‮’امریکہ چلا بھی گیا پھر بھی کارروائیاں جاری رکھیں گے‘‬

YouTube - Peshawari Dabang Lady.mp4

Breaking News, Analysis, Politics, Blogs, News Photos, Video, Tech Reviews - TIME.com

"

By Sikander Hayat Pakistani society tolerates corruption to a an extent that it is now taken fro granted that certain professions in Pakistan will make you rich through swindling public & private money. Police is one of those professions which instead of making life easier for Pakistanis, make it worse. This song by the band “Siege” show this Pakistani attitude towards corruption in a satirical way and worth listening to.   Related Posts:   1. Corruption at Unprecedented Levels - Can Someone save Pakistan from Asif Ali Zaradari & Billawal Zardari 2. Why Pakistan Army Must Allow The Democracy To Flourish In Pakistan & Why Pakistanis Must Give Democracy A Chance? 3. Efforts to hold Bosnia together have repercussions as far afield as Afghanistan 4. India keeping one-third of world’s poor population 5. From Great Game to Grand Bargain - Ending Chaos in Afghanistan and Pakistan 6. Russians and the government of Russia wake up to deepening economic crisis a...

By Sikander Hayat Pakistan has lost one it’s most senior and trust journalist, columnist & opinion maker Irshad Ahmad Haqqani has died. His career spaned more than half a century and saw many upheavals in the history of Pakistan. He was a great thinker and the senior editor of The Daily Jang newspaper. He was also associated with Mir Khalil-ur-Rehman Society as Patron and was one among the founders of Jang newspaper Lahore besides, his columns Hurf-e-Tammana remained well acclaimed among different schools of thoughts including scholars, politicians and thinkers. According to knowledgeable sources, he had been ailing of heart problems for some days and had quitted writing columns for newspapers. It may be mentioned he offered his services as federal information minister during tenure of interim government in 1993.Earlier in the beginning of his career; the deceased remained annexed with Jamaat-e-Islami and also offered his services as principal Islamia College Qusoor. He has bereav...

By Sikander Hayat Multan is my city and my favourite place in the world. It is situated in the Punjab Province of Pakistan. It is located in the southern part of the province. Multan District has a population of over 3.8 million and the city itself is the sixth largest within the boundaries of Pakistan. It is situated on the east bank of the Chenab River, more or less in the geographic centre of the country and about 966 km (600 mi) from Karachi. There is a strong desire in the people of Multan to be declared a separate province of Pakistan as it is the heartland of the Saraiki speaking people. The new Multan province will have all of South Punjab included in it with the city of Multan declared the capital of South Punjab. Majority of Punjabi & Urdu speakers in Multan also support the demand for new province as well. Multan is known as the City of Sufis due to the large number of shrines and Sufi saints from the city. The city is full of bazaars, mosques, shrines and ornate tombs. ...