The Londoner

By Sikander Hayat Shehbaz Bhatti ( Federal minister for minority affairs) was gunned down outside his mother's home in Islamabad this morning. This is another blow to the freedom of speech in Pakistan where governor of Punjab Salman Taseer was murdered by his own body guard for speaking his mind. Nobody knows where we are headed and what each coming day will bring for Pakistanis. But one thing is for sure and that is the continuation of senseless violence and mindless incitement to hatred by so called mullahs of questionable credentials.I an looking forward to the day when someone like Mustafa Kemal will shut down these incubators of violence & intolerance.

By Sikander Hayat Apparently there have been successful revolutions in Tunisia & Egypt and people are in power. What I see is nothing but the continuation of military rule in both these countries. What actually has happened is not people in power but the ruling elites replacing the top figure with military junta but keeping the old regimes alive. Hosni Mubarak & Ben Ali have been replaced by General Tantawi & General Amaar respectively. Both have been part of the power structure in their countries for ages and have been part of the problem rather than solution. How a replacement of a unelected despote with another unelected military man can be classed as regime change is beyond me.  I leave it you to decide if this is democracy & revolution? Related Posts: 1.  Land, language and Lieberman - Israel’s identity crisis 2.  Iranian Revolution – How Iran’s Revolution Is the Biggest Barrier To Regional Cooperation Between Iran, Turkey & Pakistan? 3.  Syria's A

By Sikander Hayat A very sad day for freedom of speech in Pakistan. Salman Taseer should not have paid with his life for what he did or did not say.   “You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist.” Friedrich Nietzsche

By Sikander Hayat Someone managed to hack into the top secret US government files and took hold of 3 million odd pages of information. Those documents were then transferred to wiki leaks to be published, making them available to anyone with a computer. Smart work America. It is very rich hearing from you about this country not safe and that country not safe but what about you? Where is your top notch CIA? Who is protecting your nuclear secrets? Last time I checked two of your own scientists passed those to USSR to make their own nuclear bomb. Was that not an act of nuclear proliferation by some of your own scientists who went rogue. This is becoming your habit now to lose your top secret files. First the Afghanistan files, then the Iraq war files & now all the data sent to Washington by your diplomats ( or shall I say spies in the disguise of diplomats). What is next? Codes to your submarines for a possible nuclear missile attack. May be or may be not. But until America puts i

By Sikander Hayat It is now becoming clear that NATO will leave Afghanistan in 2014. The exit strategy was devised in Lisbon over the last week and the main pillar of this strategy is to train a large Afghan army and put it on the streets of Afghanistan while a large American force will stay in the country but won't leave the bases after 2015. To me it looks as if America will stay in Afghanistan for a long time to come albeit in a South Korea/Japan mould . There are many voices in the region who believe that prolonged presence of the foreign troops will only prolong the conflict in Afghanistan by making making recruitment of fighters for Taliban easier. I tend to agree with this view as I see only the immediate neighbours of Afghanistan can stabilise Afghanistan with the help of United States. Among these neighbours, Iran & Pakistan will have to play a major role and America has to recognise this role. Also Iran & Pakistan will have to put aside their differences to

Karim Benzema has scored the opening goal for France against England tonight in the 16 th minute of the match giving france an unlikely lead in the match played at Wembley. He   is a French   football   player of Algerian heritage who currently plays as a   striker   for the La Liga   club   Real Madrid   and internationally represents the   French national football team . Benzema grew up with nine   siblings   and his father Hafid in the district of   Bron . His grandfather, Da Lakehal Benzema, lived in the village of Tighzert, located in the northern town of   Beni Djellil   in   Algeria   before migrating to Lyon, where he eventually settled in the 1950s. In 2006, the Algerian F.A. asked Benzema if he would play for Algeria, qualifying through his parents. Benzema, politely rejected the offer stating that he would prefer to play for French national team. Real Madrid   stars  Lassana Diarra ,   Mahamadou Diarra   and Karim Benzema   fasted during the holy month of Ramad

By Sikander Hayat Well to be honest this case is very interesting as Irish government does not want a bailout but EU ( especially Germany) is insisting that Ireland must ask for help before the contagion spreads to other Euro nations. It must be said that markets will once again burn their hands as they did in the case of Greece by betting that Greece will default and with it the Europe will go down the drain as well. To me, it is impossible that in the presence of Euro stabilisation fund and with IMF virtually backing any bailouts, Ireland will suffer a fate like Greece. Markets will once again lose a lot of money by betting against the Euro. This time around even rumours of a possible bailout of the Irish have calmed the markets right down. In my view Ireland will be OK this time around, given the fact that they don't need any money for another 6 months anyway and also this should a lessen to any currency speculators who are planning to bet against the Euro to back off. Rel