The Londoner

By Sikander Hayat I once had a chance to listen to a song by Jaques Brel, a famous Belgian francophone . This song reminds me of the butchers operating in our Pakhtoonkhwa (also known as NWFP) province. What Brel sings about in ‘Amsterdam’ is what these so called warriors of Islam are doing to the innocent women, children and other civilians of this area. Sooner these bastards are crushed the better as these people are not worthy of being called humans let alone Muslims. They want to take my country back to the 14th century and they call it the will of God. Well let me tell you this very clearly, Islam prospered in the 14th century and thereafter because it was the most modern thing the mankind had seen until that time and it kept itself apace with the developments in world and that was the reason that Muslims ruled large areas of this earth until the end of the Ottoman empire which was the most secular empire for a long time while it acquired knowledge from all corners of

By Jeremy Page Arrogant, ham-handed, startling, impertinent – these are the sort of words used here, with reason, to describe David Miliband's comments on the Mumbai attacks last week. There is another word, though, that applies equally well: correct. Of course it was impolitic to contradict Manmohan Singh, the Prime Minister, by saying that Britain does not believe the Pakistani state directed the Mumbai attacks. As for suggesting that the root cause of such attacks is Kashmir, surely the FCO recalls India's outrage in 1997 when Robin Cook suggested mediating on that issue? For the current Foreign Secretary of the former colonial ruler to make both these points publicly, while on Indian soil, was either deliberately provocative or incredibly naive. Mr Miliband also managed to cause offence with his tone and body language – a schoolboy error in dealing with a notoriously sensitive partner. The fact remains, however: he was spot on. Indian officials admit in private that there

Holbrooke, a former ambassador to the United Nations who negotiated the 1995 peace agreement that ended the Bosnian war, faces an array of challenges in dealing with the war in Afghanistan and its tense and fragile border with Pakistan. Here are some of the problems and possibilities for U.S. action in the region: - President Barack Obama has ordered a review of the U.S. strategy in Afghanistan. He promised during the campaign to bolster troop levels there to battle growing violence and a resurgent Taliban and al Qaeda, but new Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said at her confirmation hearing that a broader strategy was needed in Afghanistan that included diplomacy, defense and development. In addition to more troops in Afghanistan, the United States has promised more nonmilitary aid to Pakistan devoted in part to developing tribal areas where al Qaeda militants have flourished. Osama bin Laden and other top al Qaeda militants are believed to be hiding in the mountainous border regio

Pakistan People Party (PPP) & Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) (PML(N)) are preparing for a contest in March for senate elections. This is going to decide the short term future of the Pakistani politics as the scenarios emerging from these elections will remain on the scene for some time to come. PPP is in a strong position both at the federal level and the provincial level because of a decent number of seats in every province while PML (N) is only represented in Punjab and will have enormous difficulties in making a strong fist of it if it does not find allies in other parties. PML (Q) holds some cards here as it can tilt the balance of power not only at the federal level but at the provincial level as well and PML (N) will have to decide its future course by either deciding to bargain with PML (Q) or standing against it. Politically, the only way PML (N) could hope to save its government in Punjab and mount a powerful and meaningful opposition at the federal level is by a coalit

By Sikander Hayat No doubt Barack Obama will face many challenges during his term but these in my view are the top ten challenges to confront him. 1. He must somehow bring American economy back to life. This will be a monumental task to achieve in the short term but must happen for Obama to have any chance of re-election in 2012. 2. Improve America’s image abroad which he has done to some extent by just being elected as president but there is a lot of work to be done especially with the allies in Europe. America must listen to its friends in Europe and not take any future unilateral actions that were George W Bush’s trade mark during his presidency. Stop the non sense about “new Europe and old Europe because George Bush found at his country’s expense that the “ New World Order” that his father proclaimed with America as the sole super power with the Warsaw pact countries replacing old allies is dead and even newer world order with China, Russia, Brazil, EU, India and Gulf A

By Sikander Hayat Pakistan has beaten Sri Lanka in the first of their three match one day cricket series. Pakistan was helped by a powerful batting display by Salman Butt who scored a hundred and Pakistan won by 8 wickets in the end. This was a good showing for a team which has not been able to play any cricket whatsoever in last few months due to visiting team’s concern over playing in Pakistan. This must be a good sign as by having a cricket match in Karachi, involving a foreign team, without any incident is a promising sign and a win by Pakistan cricket team will prove to be a welcome diversion for the population in general.

Few days ago it was revealed that Prince Harry had called one of his cadet friends at Sandhurst academy a “Paki” by saying that “I have a Paki Friend as well”. Now being a Pakistani who lives in UK, I have always been amazed by the sensitivity shown by the whites and the browns over the use of this word when in Pakistan itself slogans like “Paki Power” , “proud to be Paki” and “don’t mess with the Pakis” are frequently used during cricket matches played in Pakistan. The word Paki was first used as a short form for Pakistani when many immigrants arrived in the UK from Pakistan in the early 60s. Then later on it was started to be used for all brown people (immigrants from all of the subcontinent and from Uganda and Kenya). I can understated the unease of the Indians at being called Paki when clearly they are not from Pakistan but I cannot understand it when people from Pakistan start oos and aws at being called or referred to as Pakis. People from Afghanistan are Afghanis, not Afghan