Writings


Culturally globalized
Neither languages, nor nations are pure. We together are inter-woven. This is the second foundation for the contemporary globalization. Anglicans are colonized in North America, Asia, Africa, Australia, and Europe. Spanish, French, Portuguese-Dutch are colonized in South America, North America, Africa, and Asia; linguistic Slav connectivity with East Europe and Asia, Indo-European linguistic connectivity of Asia, Europe, North and South America, and Africa are sheds of cultural globalization. Read on Academia.edu


Pakistan at the crossroad of ideology
In 2013, Jammat-e-Islami Pakistan declared Mohammad Bin Qasim ‘First Pakistani’. Later on in 2013, Pakistan Army Chief General Pervez Kiyani while addressing the army men said that Mohammad Bin Qasim is the ‘First Pakistani’. Apart from the dissents concerning historical and contemporary narratives about Pakistan, it is established fact according to the official record; the name of newly found country was ‘Pakistan’ in 1947. Pakistan was officially named Islamic Republic of Pakistan in 1973. Read on Academia.edu

Sindhi beyond the borders
Sindhi of all faiths and paths, reside in all continents. There are Sindhi that are historically submerged in some nations, like in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Sindhi who are now indigenized there with the tribe or clan name Al-Sindi. Some Sindhi families are submerged in Java and Sumatra islands; and some are submerged in Russia, living in Moscow having combination of names and family names of Sindhi and Russian. Read on Academia.edu

Sindh and Balochistan: sociological polity
Sindhi and Baloch today have transformed into modern social and cohesive entities, as they were historically however the linguistic, ethnic and sub-cultural additions that were resulted by the Partition of British India, (after the creation of Pakistan) initiated the process of integration in the societies. Politics is patchy social process, imbibed with the power; therefore state apparatus of Pakistan, like elsewhere in the world today, has particularly determined the social interdependence among and between the indigenous-aboriginal Sindhi and Baloch as well as the migrants, refugees, and immigrants durring 1947 -2017. Read on Academia.edu

Colonial South Asia
After the dismemberment of Pakistan in 1971, and defeat in war with India, Pakistan Army launched a military operation in Balochistan. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto neither gave orders for Balochistan operation, nor did he tender suggestion for the military action in East Pakistan (now Bangaldesh). It is, thus propagated by the military and security regime of Pakistan that it was Bhutto who wanted military action in East Pakistan. Read on Academia.edu

Pakistan Establishment
If briefed, Pakistan establishment has many layers of political and strategic decision making, governing and coordinating within and between Centre and the Provinces. For example President, Prime Minister, Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, Chiefs of Army, Navy and Air Force, Director General of ISI, and National Security Advisor (NSA) are the core of height of establishment, constitutionally led by Prime Minister in terms of governance and by President in terms of state which also includes the decision of war making as well as use of nukes. Read on Academia.edu

 Pakistan: Change of flags
Mohammad Ali Jinnah (M. A. Jinnah), joined hands of Mohan Das Karamchand Gandhi (M.K. Gandhi) in the movement for the provincial autonomy in united India during British Raj. Pakistan was realized formally as a viable idea after 1945. The idea of Pakistan, in fact, is wrongly associated with Dr. Alama Iqbal. Dr. Iqbal basically toed the concept of amalgamation of united Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhuwa (then NWFP), and Balochistan into one Muslim majority state within India. Read on Academia.edu

Pakistan: change of guards
Indus civilization ages seven thousand years. Pakistan is just seventy. Sindh and Balochistan together are the core of the Indus civilization that can be called Sindh civilization. Each brick of Maher Garh, a 5000 BC archeological site of Indus near the adorable Bolan hills of Balochistan was sold out by Sardar Yar Mohaamad Rind to international archeological mafia. Read on Academia.edu
 
Sindh-Balochistan: Participation in Pakistan military and security versus Asia's largest military concentration
Asia's largest military concentration is in Sindh and Balochistan by Pakistan armed forces and services. If compared with the population vis-a-vis vast terrain in Balochistan, the military-civilian ratio in Balochistan, as well as in Sindh would be alarming.  Read in Merinews

Sindh-Balochistan: International Intrests
It was a great exchange of ideas and thoughts with Nepali journalist, who just got free from his professional responsibilities of the media coverage for Nepali Prime Minister's visit of India. Read in Merinews

United Nations, international law and rights of the people
People, particularly the activists and persons of opinion who strive for the right needs to review legislation, legality and practices on their lands with reference to international law, which is also called international human rights law. Some of the international instruments are presented here with specific reading along with having some examples from Sindh, Balochistan and Siraiki areas in Pakistan; India; Iraq; and USA. Read 
 
Transition for interdependence and unity
Nations, continents, and their interrelations are the world body politic subsided by the culture. We need to have a leap beyond the faith in the world-order of these steady withering away contours. We have an international establishment in the form of United Nations; we were unable to transfer it into the world establishment. We have been attempting to translate the UN into virtual world establishment. Read on Academia.edu

China-Pakistan: What lays ahead for Sindh and rest of the world?
Finally the nightmare has begun. As it was expected, the proposed Chinese intervention in Sindh and Balochistan has greeted the people of Balochistan and Sindh with the Pakistan Air Force bombardment in at least seven districts of Balochistan and two districts of Sindh.  Read on Merinews

 China-Pakistan axis: Beginning of a new cold war
China and Pakistan recently have signed over one hundred agreements worth 64 billion USD in the field of infrastructure developments. These projects are mainly connected with the development and operations of the new and old seaports in Sindh and Balochistan as well as initiatives that connect China with coastal strip of these provinces, and also with Afghanistan bordering Khyber Pakhtunkhuwa (KP), India bordering Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) and landlocked Pakistani Punjab.  Read on Merinews


New norms of globalization
UK kicked off the formal process of a new era in globalization. Brexit has been a public opinion on the way world is being globalized. This opinion, sought through referendum, is from the country that has a historical background of colonial diversity. Read in daily Afghanistan Times

Co-option of Pakistan: A new China perspective
Pakistan has kicked off a new chapter in its strategic as well as economic history, which essentially can be dubbed as Sinification of Pakistan society and state. This would be first-ever initiative over seventy years history of the country that Pakistan has decided a major and futuristic shift in its strategic policy and planning. Read in India Foundation Journal

Pakistan: Census amid ethno-national conflicts
Census is forthcoming in Pakistan after over two-decade lapse. Census in Pakistan, unlike elsewhere, is the core of not only economy and development, but also of the polity and inter-provincial relationships. Read on Merinews

Wave of new transition
The recent murder of Indian origin techie Srinivas Kuchibhotla in the US is a violent expression and kick start of what has been bickering up on the back-burners of our contemporary times and history. Such socio-psychological developments that led an American to kill young Srinivas have been rooted in the race and ethnicity perspectives not only caused by the globalisation, but also by the changing economic aspects of today's world. Read on Merinews

Sindh - sovereignty and will
Sindh has re-claimed its sovereignty in twofold manifestations -- legislative, and through popular will. Legislative sovereignty was reclaimed through Sindh Assembly's resolution for formation of Sindh army or Sindh armed force. This happened during Pakistan Muslim League - Nawaz (PML-N) central government in Pakistan during 1996-98. Meanwhile, the popular will has been expressed in the movements in Sindh that also includes Sindh Freedom March held in 2009, 2011 and 2014.  Read on Merinews

Making of Modern Pakistan
Seventy years journey of Pakistan after creation in 1947 is a dynamic history of social chemistry and state-making process, which has odd and even manifestations. Founded on the basis that Muslim majority states of Indian Subcontinent are a nation, Pakistan was bound to become a moderate country and state. Read on Merinews

World politics, globalization and collective human responsibility 
The world faces diverse socio-political, economic and spiritual issues and problems. If this phenomena of contemporary global disorder is interpreted philosophically, it is a conflict of ‘structuralism’ versus ‘essentialism’ within the state, society, and beyond. Read on Descrier

The New Neutral 
when individual or collective conflicts push politics into a blind alley, neutrality becomes key to mediation and resolution. Mediation, in all its forms—cultural, individual, collective or judicial—requires neutrality. If seen through the lens of diplomatic history among nations and the cultural history of people, neutrality embodied with justice has not only been successful in bringing about peace but also sustaining it. Hence, the diversified nature of conflicts, inter- as well as intra-state, ethnic and group require the exhibition of extreme neutrality for a judicious and sustainable resolution of the antagonism that is destined to lead all of us towards collective destruction.  Read in daily Kathmandu Post, Nepal

Sixty seven years of Pakistan 
Pakistan is now sixty-seven. Its history until now has been a history of the state versus its citizenry, particularly citizenry of non-Punjabi and non-Urdu origin. If a people's history of Pakistan is documented, it would become the voluminous account on the state crimes. Read on Truthout, USA 

Dynamics of Pakistan establishment
Pakistan is unpredictable. The two decades long world engagement with Pakistan for the essential reforms in the state-field, society and economy has failed to give results. There is no full stop to the religious extremism as well as its export, anti-democratic moves and extreme centralization of the federal governance. Read on Academia.edu

Pakistan Policy of USA
The global security challenges from Afghanistan to Ukraine
Issues of security and stability in Asia and Europe are interdependent. Given the continual rise of new conflicts from Asia-Pacific to the Atlantic, these issues and conflicts need to be addressed through a fundamentally new approach to security.  Read on Academia.edu

Post Scotland referendum freedom movements

Pakistan: Britain's historical responsibility to the people of Sindh
On Thursday, the Scottish people will decide their political future, after an agreement between Westminster and Edinburgh for a referendum on succession from the union. This moment in history offers and important for the UK to also consider its obligations towards democracy in its previous colonies. Read in Descrier, UK

' I realized if we wore Sindhi cap, we would be killed'
It was the summer of 1987. I was in Kalhora colony, Hyderabad at my uncles' place during school vacations. One morning when I got up and went to buy milk from the dairy of Chacha Deenu Soomro Shikarpuri, I found blood on the wooden gate of my uncle's house. There was a printed note on the door fixed with glue – Jeay Muhajir.  Read on Merinews

Relief under water
It was in 2010 that a great flood in South Asia inundated plains and valleys on both sides of the Indus River. We took initiatives to give maximum relief to the population hit by the disaster in the Sindh and Balochistan provinces in Pakistan, which was our intervention area as civil society actors. On our request, Kanak Mani Dixit together with the South Asian Trust based in Nepal established the Indus Flood Relief Fund in Kathmandu. We were also supported by other South Asians as well as by the American Jewish World Service.  Read in daily Kathmandu Post


Why does Sindh want freedom?
Majority of Sindhis want freedom of Sindh from Pakistan. I myself am a Sindh freedom believer, although I was a civil and political rights activist and journalist in Pakistan, and now an analyst and writer. Five millions gathered in Karachi on March 23, 2014 to demand international community's intervention for the freedom of Sindh. Read on Merinews

Politics of isolation: Russia-Europe standoff 
It was widely speculated that the exclusion of Russia from leading industrial countries would result into an almost unresolved conflict between Russia and NATO nations. Read on Russian Council on International Affairs

Cautiousness in Afghanistan-Pakistan relationship
In a recent meeting between President Asraf Ghani and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Afghanistan and Pakistan have reached over an understanding on the security cooperation, capacity building and mutual trade. This unexpected development exclusively includes the training of Afghan National Army by Pakistan Army. Read on Russian Council on International Affairs

A stone that has to get out of the age
Things change a lot. Permanence of the statuesque is beyond possibility. At least, Sindh is changing; if not Pakistan. Much has been discussed about the fall and gradually decline of Pakistan; however we have to watch calculatedly the every step of its decline. Read on Russian Council on International Affairs

Dangerous means
world politics since World War II has one highly common manifestation. The world powers since last century have turned conflicts into wars and transformed wars into proxy violence in bids to attain their legitimate or illegitimate interests. If the cold war strategies, the post-Cold War interests games, the post-9/11 situation and the recent Islamic State (ISIS) phenomena are reviewed deeply, it becomes crystal clear that the various powers have almost re-phrased the same old strategic modi operandi in the respective regions of the world. Read in daily Kathmandu Post

Making of Twenty First Century State
States and wars are an outcome of each other. A state has justified legitimacy over the use of violence to maintain peace and order in a justice oriented manner for the healthy regulation of socio-economic activities. Read in Merinews

Forbidden Questions
Humans have forgotten so many things. They have forgotten to ask fundamental questions to reach at priori and a priori realities. Sometimes these questions are forbidden, but mostly they find no way for expression because together, we have virtually banned logical thinking. These questions number in the millions but we can only highlight a few. Read in daily Kathmandu Post

International Politics of Middle Path
Geographical irritants like highly distant location from the rest of the countries, value  based interests and historical setbacks are the factors behind the re-writing and re-defining the international relations, and thereby diplomacy of Japan, Australia and Sweden. Read on Acadmia.edu

Militarization of Pakistan Parliament 
The damage is done finally. The Parliament and the electoral parties have axed themselves by undertaking legislation on the nefarious bill for establishing military courts across Pakistan. And, in the wink of eye, the Pakistan Army started establishing military courts in Sindh, despite the fact that the religious terrorism is almost non-existent there. Read in Merinews

A world of Sufism
The world is currently undergoing ‘global anarchy’. Human society is witnessing diversified and multiple forms of chaos in the context of human as well as development insecurity. This phenomena has resulted from the knotty and unsustainable means of strategic manifolds adopted and implemented in the conflict arena during and after the Cold War, especially in today’s transitional period of a multi-polarised global balance of power.  Read in daily Kathmandu Post, Nepal

Politics of dissent and neutrality
Neither dissent, nor the anti-dissent has changed their historical yin-yang process. This, an ever green social-dynamic is as old as the history of human consciousness itself is. It is only the difference of time (age, era and epoch) and circumstances (socio-political ecology) that has changed the nature of dissent and manifestation of anti-dissent mostly in the form of state-offense / oppression against the dissenting citizens and the people. Read in Truthout, USA

A culture of state
Is it because of a diversity of interests, thoughts and wisdom that the world today is becoming such a knotty patchwork? Yes, it is an issue of disorientation in decision-making at the state, society and world levels. Read details in daily The Kathmandu Post

A full stop to the 20th century
It was neither the end nor the beginning. It was just a calendar-adjustment globally to the tune of the 21st century. Nevertheless, the inception of the new century some fifteen years ago ought to have left a deep socio-psychological impression on everyone. The global citizenry yearning for change wanted socio-political and eco-economic transformations in the real-time history of their own living generation. Have we really inched ahead, and tried to unbutton the change waiting to be? Not yet! Then, rest assured that the time has come to dig at the microcosm of a time-bound demand for this unavoidable discourse. Read details in daily The Kathmandu Post

Realities behind the Pakistani 'Revolution'
Islamabad drama would sooner or later reach climax or the anti-climax. The script writer of the sit-in drama probably has been changing the script according to the tide. Read in Merinews

Don't trap Sindh!
The time has come for Sindhi, especially Sindhi in Diaspora, to seriously opt for taking the formal case of Sindh in the United Nations on the basis of historical treaties signed between sovereign country of Sindh and the Britain before Britain's invasion of Sindh as well as crimes committed by the State of Pakistan and its ethno-communal mercenaries against Sindhi. This has become necessary especially after the recent blackmailing attempts by the sate-cronies. Read on Merinews

A Tale of Strategic Talbanization
The recent military campaign 'Zarb-e-Azb' by Pakistan Army in Afghanistan bordering tribal areas against Taliban, Al-Qaida and their Pakistani, Central Asian and Arab fugitive recruits continues to occupy news and analysis. Like previous ones, this recent military campaign was of no significant result, thus compelling the United States to drone strategically important "Punjabi Talban Headquarters" on July 19. Due to the changing complexion of religiosity and terrorism in Pakistan, a review of the military move is needed in the perspective of Talibanization in Southern Pakistan. Read on Truthout, USA

Vernacular Media under Siege in Pakistan 
Pakistan is a virtual hell for the free, neutral, bold and intellectually sound media-associated persons and journalists, especially the associates of vernacular Sindhi and Baloch media. Dozens of media-associated persons and opinion makers are victimized or killed by the military, Inter-Service-Intelligence (ISI) and Military Intelligence (MI) as well as their supported urban or religious terrorists. Given the exclusive Punjabization of almost every civil and military institution of Pakistan, there has been no single quotable case of the murder and/or brutalization of a Punjabi journalist from 1947 to 2013. Saleem Shahzad and Najam Sethi were exceptions because Shahzad touched the forbidden tree - the evidence of the nexus between Islamist terrorists and the garrison city Rawalpindi, and Najam Sethi held secular views and opposed the Punjabi military establishment of Pakistan. (However, today, he is also closely linked with the military establishment unlike his wonderful past). Read in Truthout, USA

Decolonising development
The politics of international development has never asserted its hitherto potential role to address changes in development paradigms, rights regimes and social movements in internally colonised countries across the globe. Pakistan, in this regard, could be the first-ever model for this kind of a new initiative. Read in Daily The Kathmandu Post

Why Pakistan Is Not Changing
"Change" and "Pakistan" are the words of significant disconnect for Pakistanis and the world outside. The world outside has many illusions about Pakistan. The federation of the Indus civilizations' muslim majority states is merely 70 years old, but houses a contemporary history of global geo-political engagements and is the epicenter of terror and violence in the name of Islam. It's also a hot spot for ethnic chauvinism that runs through the tectonic plates of the iron-clad military headquarters at Rawalpindi. Read in Truthout, USA

Colonised internally
The boom of socialist politics in the global order between 1950-1970s, the Cold War episode that played out in Afghanistan during the 1980s and the ‘war on terror’ during the 2000s have been instrumental in state development, social progress, economic growth and the political narrative of Southasia. These global conflicts for power and resources have always been an external factor behind the gap in between states and societies. Read in daily The Kathmandu Post

Of state and society 
Human society has two inherent permanent features and tendencies—the emergence of social-waves and the process of structuralisation in those social-waves. This opposition is a chain of causalities, containing the manifestation of dynamics in the political economy and social progress, as well as their retrogression and social stagnation. No phenomenon of social movements around the globe, particularly in the previous colonies, is an exception to this dialectic of mass expression. Read in The Kathmandu Post

Why Crimea will resonate beyond Europe 
Crimea’s recent referendum on joining Russia has opened up a broader debate about sovereignty, political legitimacy and realpolitik in the modern world. Read on Russia Direct 

An Afghanistan endgame climax
What can be a climax of Afghanistan endgame? Inching towards stability or an anti-climax—one brow the fears, which are widely reported from this ill-fated land and the victim of most of the conflicting global interests of our times. Read article in daily Afghanistan Times

Ethnicity and urbanisation
The transformation of South Asia from feudal and rural relations into the urban has enormous development contours along with highly sensitive challenges of its ethno-political stability and governance. Therefore, any discourse focusing cities in South Asia cannot avoid the issues and relation between demography, governance, and ethnic stability. Read article in The Kathmandu Post

Pakistan: Politics of fallacies
External perceptions of Pakistani politics and society are often fallacious. The analysis, policies, and decisions based on these perceptions, assumptions, and myths regarding Pakistan in the outer world are therefore often fruitless. Read article on The Descrier, UK

Pakistan: What Does the Future Hold?
Pakistan is at a crossroads. Its fragmented internal and external political situation is gradually inching towards chaos. The country is facing secessionist movements in the Balochistan and Sindh provinces; religious terrorism in Punjab, the Tribal Areas, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) province; war on its Afghan border; continued discontent with neighbouring India; disagreements with the US; and a distancing from Saudi Arabia. The key to understanding these current crises is in the understanding of state building and statecraft. Read article on The Descrier, UK

The centre cannot hold
Federations around the world have adapted political systems to the foundations of their socio-political and cultural realities so that proclamations of identity, the trickling down of the fruits of governance to the grassroots level and the unfurling of even patterns of development based on parity become a tangible reality. Read article on THe Kathmandu Post

Roots of Sindhi-Hindu Exodus from Pakistan
The morning of August 10, 2012 carried news of exodus of Hindus from Pakistan. Immigration authorities detained 250 families having valid documents and visas at Wagah-Atari border of India and Pakistan near Lahore. Read on Claws

Afghanistan's Future
The "first world war on Afghanistan" began in 1979 and concluded in 1991, resulting in a decisive defeat of the then-Soviet Union. If seen in the context of people's history, almost 2.802 billion people suffered the direct, indirect and post-direct burns of the Afghan drama in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, China, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Azerbaijan and India and later on, post 9/11, in the United States, UK and European Union. If the war and war-related expenditure by the international community in Afghanistan is roughly calculated, it would probably exceed $10 trillion. Read article on Truthout, USA

Towards one Southasia
Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, like ex-president Asif Ali Zardari, has recently tuned up the good old mantra of a visa-free India-Pakistan. However, the nature of geopolitical relations between these two countries alone is the major hurdle to a visa-free regime in the region. Given the fact that visa arrangements and norms between the rest of the Southasian countries are almost on the verge of border-free regional entities, it is speculated that a visa-and-border-free Southasia can only be realised, unlike the European Union, through a gradual visa-and-border regime change. Read in The Kathmandu Post

Federalism in Pakistan & Movement for self-determination in Sindh
Pakistan is at a crossroads, its federal structure severely threatened by provincial independence movements fueled by ethnic tensions, structural political failures and the allocation of tax revenues. Pakistan is on the brink again after 1971. Intensive decade-long secessionist warfare is underway in Balochistan, and a mass movement, accompanied by low-scale insurgency, has arisen in Sindh, which cast the shadow of popular uprising in March 2012, when hundreds of thousands took to the streets in the provincial capital Karachi, demanding independence for Sindh. Read article on Truthout, USA

Personal reflection: Politics of development and civil society of Pakistan
Politics of development and particularly international development is highly complex structure of studies; however when it is attempted to understand in a very naïve way, it becomes easiest for the common understanding. Being associated with the human rights, journalism and development sector during my career time in Pakistan, I have a few simple readings, observations, feelings and understandings of practical political aspects of development and rights based activism and their funder nexus. I am sharing these briefly and in simple manner avoiding the larger academic discussion and discourse around the development politics in Pakistan. Click to read on Merinews

Unmasking democracy: Military versus civil governance in Sindh 
After a month of the millions’ march in Karachi for the freedom of Sindh, the Sindh Assembly for the first time in its history within Pakistan has unanimously passed a resolution on April 29, 2014 against the Federal Government and the Federation of Pakistan. The resolution mentioning “accesses done by the Federal Governments of Pakistan against Sindh” and has quoted that the Federation of Pakistan is punishing Sindh. Read article on Merinews

Millions Sindhi Hold Freedom March in Karachi To Demand Independence
People in the Punjab province celebrated Republic Day in Pakistan on March 23, with an entirely opposite event 'Sindh Freedom March' held in Karachi. CNN claimed there were at least "5 million Sindhis" in attendance while some Sindh-based media quoted a figure of 8 million. The Freedom March celebrated under the banner of a Jeay Sindh Qomi Mahaz (JSQM), a Sindh freedom secessionist party, and demanded a separate, independent status for Sindh province. Read report on Truthout, USA

12 dissenters killed, over 100 detained in Sindh, Pakistan
Islamabad has become political hot spot these days due to Imran Khan and Tahirul Qadri’s ‘Freedom’ and ‘Revolution’ protest marches. Taking advantage of Pakistani and international media focus on these marches, the Sindh Police, Pakistan Rangers and intelligence agencies like Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) and Military Intelligence (MI) have allegly launched the unannounced military operation in natural resources rich Sindh province against the secessionist Sindhi nationalist parties. Read report on CNN iReport

Ten commandments for contemporary world!
Human society needs to adopt new 'Ten Commandments' for the salvation of human beings, the earth, and the life over it. The era of red, green, blue, and saffron tinted ideological states is over. Human society has evolved, throughout the course of its history, some basic values, and principles on which it has repeatedly tried to offer humanity the maximum possible equity, justice, prosperity, and peace.Published on Merinews

A-political dictionary of Pakistan
Revolution is diverse but highly clear and marketable commodity in Pakistan’s political fishy business, which today means snatching power by either luring garrison city of ‘Rawan-Pindi’ (Ooops! Rawalpindi) or by winning electoral constituencies by any means. Click to read on Merinews

Sindhi Hindu exodus causing humanitarian red alert for India
India has become the last destination of Sindhi Hindus from Pakistan, where the state-sponsored seminaries have been victimizing them since last two decades. Over 2000 Hindus have recently refuged in the premises of Delhi; however the rough estimates suggest their number hascrossed one hundred thousand during last ten years.  Click ton read on CNN

An open letter to Hasina Wajid
We owe you applause, your Excellency Sheikh Hasina Wajid, for your government's significant steps in bringing the perpetrators of war crimes in 1971 to justice. This expression of cheer by a Sindhi in exile is the continuity of an earlier generation of Sindhis and Balochs who shed blood tears over heart-wrecking brutalities, like massacres and rapes, rendered by the Pakistan Army in 1971 in Bangladesh. Click to read on The Kathmandu Post, Nepal

Plight of Hindus in Pakistan
13 December, 2013
The pseudo Muslims, ignorant of the real spirit of Islam, recently exhumed and humiliated the mortal remains of one Bhuro Bhil, a Dravidian Hindu, in district Badin of Sindh province. The land, where he was buried, was in fact donated to the residents by his ancestors. Read on Merinews

Personal reflection: Politics of development and civil society of Pakistan
08 January, 2014
Politics of development and particularly international development is highly complex structure of studies; however when it is attempted to understand in a very naïve way, it becomes easiest for the common understanding. Read on Merinews.com

An open letter to Hasina Wajid
13 January 2014
We owe you applause, your Excellency Sheikh Hasina Wajid, for your government's significant steps in bringing the perpetrators of war crimes in 1971 to justice. This expression of cheer by a Sindhi in exile is the continuity of an earlier generation of Sindhis and Balochs who shed blood tears over heart-wrecking brutalities, like massacres and rapes, rendered by the Pakistan Army in 1971 in Bangladesh. The political, social, and literary leadership of that time in Sindh and Balochistan in Pakistan was supporting Banglabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rehman. Hundreds, if not thousands, took to the streets of Sindh cities and towns against the military operation in Bangladesh (then East Pakistan). Although, Sindhis and Balochs themselves are today facing gradual an ethnic cleansing-like situation. Read in The Kathmandu Post

Towards one Southasia
22 December 2013
Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, like ex-president Asif Ali Zardari, has recently tuned up the good old mantra of a visa-free India-Pakistan. However, the nature of geopolitical relations between these two countries alone is the major hurdle to a visa-free regime in the region. Given the fact that visa arrangements and norms between the rest of the Southasian countries are almost on the verge of border-free regional entities, it is speculated that a visa-and-border-free Southasia can only be realised, unlike the European Union, through a gradual visa-and-border regime change.  Read in The Kathmandu Post

Peace beyond Kashmir
13 November 2013
Politics in Pakistan has some basic state-ideological, political morality and country-hood fault lines that, in terms of statecraft, are at the helm of almost all internal political catastrophes as well as regional instabilities.

State of sovereignty
02 November 2013
The technological inclusion of drones in the global security paradigm as a defensive-offence mechanism has kicked off a new set of discussions and discourse based on a broad range of concerns and questions. Especially in the countries that consider drones a threat to their sovereignty and national security. Besides, drone operations, particularly in Pakistan and Yemen, have also raised the question of their international legality and legitimacy in the context of nation-state sovereignty. Read in The Kathmandu Post

Does a 2011 Terrorist Episode Foreshadow the Talibanization of Sindh?
21 November 2013
On November 07, 2011, in Chak town of district Shikarpur in Sindh, Pakistan, four armed men said to be religious extremists entered the Otaq (a traditional community gathering place in rural Sindh) of Dr. Satya Pal and opened fire on several Hindus, Dr. Ajeet Kumar; Ashoke Kumar (an Income Tax Officer); Naresh Kumar; and Dr. Satya Pal. Naresh Kumar and Ashok Kumar died on the spot, while Dr. Ajeet breathed his last in the Civil Hospital of Sukkur city; while Dr. Satya Paul survived, albeit with severe injuries. He was hospitalized in Agha Khan University Hospital in Karachi. According to the single witness, the attackers fled to the nearby Indus river forests. The issue created fury among residents of the area as well as across Sindh and caused public unrest. This is the first reported attack against a religious minority in Sindh since the partition of India in 1947. Read in Truthout, USA

Afghanistan’s Future Depends on Majority Will, Pakistan and World Cooperation
The “first world war on Afghanistan” began in 1979 and concluded in 1991, resulting in a decisive defeat of the then-Soviet Union. If seen in the context of people’s history, almost 2.802 billion people suffered the direct, indirect and post-direct burns of the Afghan drama in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, China, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Azerbaijan and India and later on, post 9/11, in the United States, UK and European Union. If the war and war-related expenditure by the international community in Afghanistan is roughly calculated, it would probably exceed $10 trillion. Read full article at Truthout, USA. Read in Truthout, USA

Pakistan minister’s statement raises concern among civilians
Pakistan would also be using the drone technology against the uprisings within Pakistan after giving legal cover to the United States of America (USA) drone strikes in Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) of Pakistan through signing an agreement with USA, said Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) State Minister, Khuram Dastagir, as per the news published in Daily Ibrat Sindhi from Hyderabad. Read on Merinews.com 

Suspicious details emerge after three men burned alive in Pakistan
Numbers can be affecting. It is shocking indeed to learn through the reports of Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch that at least 861 persons were disappeared by security agencies in Pakistan during 2012; around 325 Shia minority persons were killed on sectarian grounds; and around 100 were extra-judicially killed by the military officials. These numbers do not include the thousands who lost their lives in Balochistan and Sindh in military actions during the past decade. Read in Truthout, USA

Afghan endgame: Is a stable Afghanistan possible?
The history of global intervention in Afghanistan over the past two centuries has been one of colossal failure. However, it’s still too early to tell whether the presence of international forces there during the last decade, as well as the recent plan to withdraw these forces by 2014, will ultimately be judged as a success or failure. Read on Russia Direct, Moscow

Russia amid changing perspective of Afghanistan
The changing strategic realities after the gradual international pullout from Afghanistan will require an entirely new set of approach for the sustainability of non-extremist governance and stability of social fabric. Amid, such an unpredictable future of war-game stage of Central and South Asia, Russia is one of potential players that can come forward to discuss new matrix of long-term building of state structure in Afghanistan. This requires an out of traditional box of security engagement paradigm and demands an integrated approach for the broader re-coordination of diversified interests. Read on RIAC, Moscow

Endgame Afghanistan
28 July 2013
The largest and most diverse military movement in the globe after World War II will come to an end this year in Afghanistan. Unlike the messy world wars of the last century, the conclusion of this mini world war against proxy war-making groups promises neither sustained stability in South Central Asia nor offers a by-product similar to the League of Nations that emerged after World War I. Amid the well-received news in Afghanistan regarding the quitting of international forces, Afghans and neighbouring countries are still uncertain about the Afghan endgame. Read in The Kathmandu Post

No room for dissent in Pakistan
It was an end of the beginning. Idle to the unforeseen world-shaking incidents like 9/11, Khakis chose military takeover of Pakistan in 1999 pushing the country into a non-democratic mode of government. Eventually, due to gross human rights violations, the anger simmered-up taking citizenry and lawyers to the streets. Read on Merinews.com

Afghanistan: After the ISAF Withdrawal
The ISAF withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2014 has once again pushed South-Central Asia, a globally strategic region, towards a decisive turning point similar to Soviet withdrawal from the war torn country in 1988. The strategic security of the regional and international interests has changed the debate, which now unfortunately is more concerned about the interests of various countries than that of the Afghan people.

Political Economy of Federalism in Pakistan and Movement for Self-Determination in Sindh 
Pakistan is at a crossroads, its federal structure severely threatened by provincial independence movements fueled by ethnic tensions, structural political failures and the allocation of tax revenues.. Read in Truthout, USA

Pakistan: A Personal Perspective on the Upcoming Elections
10 May 2013
Pakistan is in the midst of the most violent and an anarchic election of its history. The electoral politics in Pakistan has polarized the internal factions of society and more importantly of the powerful security establishment. Hundreds have been killed so far in dozens incidents of violence, mostly taking place during the elections campaign. It is widely believed that the results of these elections are strategically important to decide the narrative about the future of Pakistan. Read on The Descrier, UK

The centre cannot hold
01May 2013
Federations around the world have adapted political systems to the foundations of their socio-political and cultural realities so that proclamations of identity, the trickling down of the fruits of governance to the grassroots level and the unfurling of even patterns of development based on parity become a tangible reality.

Pakistan: What Does the Future Hold?
27 April 2013
Pakistan is at a crossroads. Its fragmented internal and external political situation is gradually inching towards chaos. The country is facing secessionist movements in the Balochistan and Sindh provinces; religious terrorism in Punjab, the Tribal Areas, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) province; war on its Afghan border; continued discontent with neighbouring India; disagreements with the US; and a distancing from Saudi Arabia. The key to understanding these current crises is in the understanding of state building and statecraft. Read on The Descrier, UK

Electoral politics, chemistry of fragmentation and future of Pakistan
5 April 2013 
Pakistan will undergo the decisive general elections of its history in May 2013. The country, which has been facing a decade-long human catastrophe in the form of religious extremism and war against terrorism, freedom wars and ethnic as well as sectarian violence, will get direction through the polls out of the only options of reforms or anarchy. Read on Merinews.com Part I Part II

Talbanisation of Pakistan and plight of Christians and Ahmadiya Muslims
Pakistan seems to be on the brink of religious anarchy. Talbanization of the country has turned Punjab province into a hell for the Christian and Ahmadiya religious minorities. Does country intend to adopt the path of harmony? Silence is the only answer, for now! Read on Merinews.com

Sindh bleeds in the name of democracy
Legislation over the controversial ordinance from Sindh Assembly has caused furore, leading to mass movements and protest across the Sindh. Many fear that this may lead to Baluchistan like situation in the peace-loving Sufi province of Pakistan. Read on Merinews.com

Political and ethnic battles turn Karachi into Beirut of South Asia
In Pakistan, powerful ethnic minorities rule the under-developed majorities. In the context of Sindh, especially in Karachi, this ethnic contest of power has turned this historical land into Beirut of South Asia.  Read on Merinews.com

Crimes against humanity in Sindh and Pakistan
Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabani Khar has presented a rosy human rights report in the periodical human rights review session of the United Nations in Geneva, which is an attempt to hide underway crimes against humanity in the country. Read on Merinews.com

Political Economy of Climate Change in Pakistan
Climate change has left a devastative impact on the Sindh province of Pakistan, posing threats to its economic, social and security fabric. The scenario contains possibilities of worst long-lasting changes in the demography, ethnic security, life, and livelihood. More than 20 million people have already been displaced along with the loss of hundreds of billion dollars during the 2010-2011 floods. This is just a beginning of the climate theatre. Read on Atlantic Community, Germany

Who wants to divide Sindh?
September 2012
Sindh is on the verge of widespread political violence due to newly announced local government ordinance. The situation can possibly be disastrous for the future political course of Pakistan and might even have disastrous impact on South Asia and the rest of the world.Read on Merinews.com 

Malala asks Pakistan to recreate itself
The attack on Malala has pushed liberal Pakistan to re-ascertain its face. However, the important thing to see is whether Pakistan restructures itself as a liberal moderate democracy. The Taliban attacked Malal Yousafzai due to her denial of their barbaric codes of self-described and imposed religious taboos. Unlike on the brutal murder of Salman Taseer, the people of Pakistan vociferously denounced this heinous act and stood by her - a good omen for the country, which is living in misery between devil and the deep sea.Read on Merinews.com

Unmasking democracy: Military versus civil governance in Sindh 
April 2014 
After a month of the millions’ march in Karachi for the freedom of Sindh, the Sindh Assembly for the first time in its history within Pakistan has unanimously passed a resolution on April 29, 2014 against the Federal Government and the Federation of Pakistan. The resolution mentioning “accesses done by the Federal Governments of Pakistan against Sindh” and has quoted that the Federation of Pakistan is punishing Sindh. Read on Merinews.com

Changing climate poses threat of major conflicts within Pakistan
The impact of changing climate in Pakistan exhibits symptoms of increase in the number of extremists' sanctuaries, wars between Sindh and Punjab, mass migrations, rise in urban violence and vote-bank loss for liberal parties. Read on Merinews.com

Neighbourly advice
Nepal is undergoing a socio-political transformation amid a highly contested debate around federalism and ethnicity to restructure statehood, governance and the future. The constitutional blind alley is a narrow strip between directionless sailing and rudderless anarchy. However, the forces of integration are stronger enough to ensure a safe voyage. Read in The Kathmandu Post

Can civilians win the war in Pakistan?
30 August 2012
A war is on between the executive and judiciary in Pakistan. The exhibition of muscle within the inner core of the state, which earlier toed Prime Minister Yousaf Reza Gilani out of office, has now knocked at the office of new Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf.. Read on Asia Times

Roots of Sindhi-Hindu Exodus from Pakistan
25 August 2012
The morning of August 10, 2012 carried news of exodus of Hindus from Pakistan. Immigration authorities detained 250 families having valid documents and visas at Wagah-Atari border of India and Pakistan near Lahore. Later on, they were allowed to travel to India after signing commitment bonds for returning. More families thereafter have also left Pakistan for India.Read on CLAWS Website

Changing climate poses threat of major conflicts within Pakistan
24 August 2012
The impact of changing climate in Pakistan exhibits symptoms of increase in the number of extremists’ sanctuaries, wars between Sindh and Punjab, mass migrations, rise in urban violence and vote-bank loss for liberal parties.Read on Merinews.com

Whom does Hindu exodus benefit in Pakistan?
20 August 2012
Hindu Exodus has created a new debate around minority rights in Pakistan. Analyzing factors and repercussions as well as identifying losers-beneficiaries matrix can lead to understand the scenario ousting the indigenous community from their land.Read on Merinews.com

Pakistan Divided over Afghanistan
13 August 2012
Pakistan is undergoing Afghanistan syndrome. The ‘strategic depth’ mantra of the far-right within the manifold of policy makers in Pakistan has virtually turned to be a ‘strategic dent’ in the roller costar of the foreign policy. Read on Outlook Afghanistan

Saving South Asia: Impacts of Climate Change
22 July 2012
Climate change is likely to wreak havoc in South Asia and along two climate vulnerable points—Himalaya in the north and a vast coastline in the South. The foundation of the ‘oneness’ in this ecologically diverse and volatile region lies in it being an integrated climate entity with the same regional plateau, shared ecology and interdependent natural resources—mainly rivers. Besides, from the civilization point of view, the boundaries of the region are historically bracketed between Gango-Jaumna and Sindhu-Sarsvati civilizations. Read in Daily Republica, Nepal

Southasian renaissance: land issues in Southasia
10 July 2012
Unlike in the rest of the world, land is the common and most important factor behind modern state building, political culture, socioeconomic development and transformation, urbanization and ethnic conflicts in South Asian countries. Read in Daily Republica, Kathmandu, Nepal

Important lessons: federalism in Pakistan
28 June 2012
Federalism in South Asia has many forms. Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan have remained highly volatile federations in post-colonial South Asia; whereas, India, the largest democracy as well as one of the largest federations on the globe, has its own dynamics. Federal practices are being revisited everywhere in the region–reconstruction in Afghanistan, revisions in Pakistan, restructuring in Sri Lanka, constitutional process in Nepal, rethinking over Chittagong in Bangladesh and over Kurdistan and Sistan in Iran.Read in Daily Republica Nepal

Beyond Regionalism: Evolving South Asia
12 June 2012
Beyond the much touted culture mantra, it is the political legacy combined by the geo-economic factors and emerging strategic shifts in the global trends that determines the future of contemporary South Asia. Political legacy in terms of state building, statehood and statecraft along with social process of development vis-à-vis state organism is the key towards understanding this highly dynamic region. No doubt, despite huge inter- as well as intra-state disparities from the development point of view, the region offers great prospects for social and economic leadership in the world. Read in Daily Republica, Nepal

Political Economy of Flood Disaster in Sindh: Preventing Anarchy
Blog 2010
Natural disasters in the plain areas turn the social web upside down due to higher quantum and severity, giving chances to anarchy loom large in the failure states. It could only be gauged through the socioeconomic damages and magnitude of humanitarian crises.Click to read full

Charting the women’s movement in Sindh
4 July 2010
The contemporary movement for the rights and liberation of women in Sindh is deeply connected to the emancipation movement of women during the pre-partition era. In the last one-and-a-half century, the women rights movement has been shaped by the influence of political and socio-economic development of Sindh, and it becomes imperative to analyze the historical patchworks between pre- and post-partition Sindh history to understand contemporary Sindh. Read in Daily The News

Evading Failure

27 May 2010
A state is said to have failed if it cannot provide minimum social safeguards, such as peace, order and security. Other features regarded as indicative of a state’s failure include its inability to meet the basic needs of the country’s population. The Pakistani state has undergone three phases of transformation. At the time of Partition, it was a “migrant state,” which later on transformed into an “overdeveloped state” and finally turned into a “martial state.” Read in daily The News

Post-NRO Governance
06 January 2010
The transformation of a state from military dictatorship to democracy can only be achieved through negotiations or revolution. There is no third way. The latter constructs a new system on the debris of the old one, while the former evolves the systems as well as norms of governance. Pakistan’s recent return to democracy was a ‘negotiated’ transfer. Read in Daily The News

A River Ran through It
Weekly, The Friday Times, Lahore, August 19-25, 2005
Noise erupted in the still, foggy morning as the captain revved the boat-engine, signalling the beginning of our voyage to the Indus delta at Ibrahim Hyderi, a coastal town near Karachi. After half an hour, the fog had dissipated with the rising sun and we found ourselves between two tiny islands covered with dense mangrove forests as numerous eagles hovered in the sky above. The Indus delta is a fan shaped network of seventeen major and numerous minor creeks covering about 30,000 square kilometres. It was formed in an arid climate under conditions of high river discharge – 4 billion tons of sediment per year. It experiences the highest wave energy of any river in the world; during the monsoon season, the delta front receives more wave energy in a single day than the Mississippi delta receives in the entire year. Read more

Question of Land Reforms in Pakistan
February 2008
The rural society and agriculture sector of Pakistan is chained by feudal relationships which has given birth to an evil land-tenure system with a high degree of land concentration, absentee landlordism, insecurity of tenure for share-croppers and low agricultural productivity.Read in Daily Dawn

Roots of Nationalism in Sindh
20 March 2010
A politically mature reaction by the people of Sindh was witnessed after the murder of Ms Benazir Bhutto. The mobs torched government property, destroyed the means of communication and banned vehicular traffic in every corner of Sindh. Before attacking trains, buildings, trucks and trawlers, they provided safe passage to the security guards, drivers and passengers placed inside. Food and shelter were provided to the stranded passengers. Read in Daily Dawn

A Lost World!
December 2002
If Nagar is the culture capital of Tharparkar, Karunjhar is the embodiment of its wisdom and beauty. “Paraser, a mahatma, whose hymns are part of the Vedas, meditated some thousands of years ago, near the Teerath spring, up in the caves in the Karunjhar hills. This is the asthan of Shiva, a Hindu god. He was the father of Machganda, a female character in Indian mythology, who was born from the womb of a fish,” says Ali Nawaz Khoso, a living legend of Thar who is well-versed in Sindhi, Gujrati, Marwari, Kutchi and Hindi folk-wisdom and mysticism. Read in Monthly Newsline

More than Just a War!
6 September 2009
The conquest of Sindh by the British in 1843 after the days-long battle of the Miayani forests near Hyderabad initiated two simultaneous processes in Sindh. On the one hand, a process of social transformation was begun, creating and catering to a new class of landlords; increased urbanisation nurtured a new-born bourgeoisie and petty-bourgeoisie class. Read in Daily The News

Sindhi Nationalism through the Kaleidoscope of History
Thhe history of Sindhi nationalism is basically a history of resistance movements and wars fought against foreign invasions across the centuries. Modern Sindhi nationalism, however, begins with the resistance against the British in the mid-nineteenth century. The entire movement can be divided into two parts: pre- and post-Partition. Read in Daily The News

Sindh: A province devastated
The flood that inundated Sindh beginning in the first week of August left hundreds of villages and scores of towns in 21 out of the 23 districts of the province flooded. Of these, 16 districts were completely inundated, and the remaining seven were affected by breaches and overflow in canals. In the language of disaster response, almost four million people in the province were rendered ‘vulnerable’, two million ‘extremely vulnerable’ and 700,000 homeless. It is estimated that around 10 million people will be affected in Sindh by the time the floodwater enters the Arabian Sea. Read on HimalSouthasian