The Londoner

By Sikander Hayat Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq and now Yemen are under effective American occupation. Latin America was pacified during the reign of Ronald Reagan and “evil empire” of Soviet Union is long gone. Times are tough both for US and the Muslims around the world. Especially Muslims living as minorities in Western countries. With each passing day their future is becoming more and more bleak. The Al-Qaeda Terrorists are doing their best to isolate Muslims living in Europe & America from the mainstream societies and having a considerable success in doing so. With each and every attack or attempted attack on western interests, press coverage is painting all Muslims with the same brush. America is a juggernaut which will only change course when its time as an empire runs out like it did for Romans and Greeks before them. America will keep interfering in unstable parts of the world because when it does not, it gets blamed for not doing so. America will remain pro Israel as no one...

By Sikander Hayat Kamran Akmal single handedly cost Pakistan a match which was in the hands of Pakistan. He dropped 4 catches in the second innings. This is criminal. This guy has cost Pakistan the match. This is it. Pakistan has lost it. Kamran Akmal is really down on confidence and needs to be rested for some time. Australia played really well aided by the worst captaincy in recent times. Pakistan's negative tactics had put them in a very bad situation. Absolutely rediculous captaincy by Muhammad Yousuf. Pakistan needs to have three different teams for each format of the game. Otherwise there is no chance in hell for this Pakistan who have lost all 7 test they played last year and the first one this year.

By Sikander Hayat Pakistan have not won a test match against Australia for last 15 years but tomorrow Pakistan has a historic chance of winning one. At the end of 3rd day’s play, Australia are 80 runs ahead in their second innings with 2 wickets remaining. Pakistan bowled really well, especially Danish Kaneria & Umer Gul bowled with great heart. Umer Gul proved that his inclusion was the right one and took important wickets at important times in the second innings. The match would have been over by now if Kamran Akmal had not given Australia at least five chances during the day. It was a day when he forgot to keep wickets and just like his brother Umer Akmal forgot to catch as well. He must up his game both in wicket keeping and batting to give Pakistan a chance to win. His batting could prove vital on the 4th day when Pakistan will chasing in their second innings. Pakistan will be chasing a score between 150 & 200 and given how Pakistan has fared in the past run chases, it wi...

By Sikander Hayat Pakistan squandered a chance to push Australia out of the test match in Sydney . The wicket of Muhammad Yousuf was crucial and his dismissal was a tame one when he was completely set and timing the ball sweetly. Given that Pakistan is playing against Australia, this match is evenly poised. Pakistan have a very poor record of chasing even small totals in the 4th innings and chasing anything above 150 would be a very hard task indeed. Pakistan should have batted Australia out of the match but given the fragility of Pakistan batting and lack of hundreds impeded their progress. Any hopes of an easy victory are no longer in the minds of fans but the fears that Australia will score above 400 and win the match are bugging every Pakistani supporter. Umer Akmal needs to understand that he is playing test cricket and not T20 because every time he comes to bat, he wants to hit every ball out of the park. The dismissal of Muhammad Yousaf sparked an almighty and very fam...

By Sikander Hayat It is true that Musharaf was the first person to really take a keen interest in the development of Gwadar and he was probably taking personal interest in the city of Gwadar to make it an industrial and tourist destination. Musharaf was an army man but not all of his ideas were bad. It can be argued that Gwadar in general and Baluchistan in particular have been neglected under democratic governments and it took an army man in the form of Pervaiz Musharaf to kick start the development projects in Baluchistan. Gwadar was the poster child of this development idea. Building the coastal highway to join Gwadar with Karachi was a master stroke and starting the port construction was another major step towards the right direction. Where he went wrong was the lack of consultation with the local stakeholders and tried to force feed development to Gwadar people. Locals thought of the project as a colonisation attempt by the federal government and balked at the idea of increase in...

By Sikander Hayat Pakistan cricket team played really well on the first day of the Sydney cricket test and bowled Australia out for 127. Muhammad Asif took 6 wickets and Muhammad Sami took 3 wickets to put Australia under great pressure after Ricky Ponting won the toss and elected to bat first on a pitch which was green with overcast conditions. This decision might come back to haunt him later in the match which despite losing time on the first day is moving fast on the first day in cricketing terms. One full innings is over and Pakistan are 14 without loss of any wickets. The most amazing thing about this match is the return of Muhammad Sami and as I wrote previously, this is the last chance for him to prove that he has what it takes to be the spearhead of the Pakistani attack. Muhammad Sami was the biggest difference from the last match when after Muhammad Aamer and Muhammad Asif had no back up. Rauf should never had played the last match but what’s done is done and now is the time i...

According to reports, Danish police have shot a man who was trying to enter the house of cartoonist Kurt Westergaard, who made cartoons of Prophet Muhammad. The man is injured and in custody of Danish police and his life in not in danger. The man was of Somali origin and was armed with an axe and a knife. If this report is confirmed than it is a very bad development for the European Muslims because the far right will portray the actions of this one man as that of whole community and defame them further. There is a need for the European Muslims to organize themselves in such a way that fellow Muslims can be educated to respect the freedom of speech. There is no doubt Muslims get hurt deeply when their religion is disrespected and this should not become a norm in the European society but at the same time, it is paramount that in a democratic society freedom of speech should be respected. Democratic means should be used to let the fellow Europeans know of the hurt that Muslims feel when ...