Opinion Articles

Chairman’s Message to all the members of Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf.

The illustrious prime minister of Pakistan, in yet another habitual somersault on his part, gate-crashed the dinner of the honourable judges and broke bread with them. The misdirected and ill-advised notification of the presidency, which caused a great embarrassment to the government, has now thankfully been withdrawn.

The New York jury’s decision finding Dr Aafia guilty on seven charges did not really surprise anyone familiar with the vindictive mindset of the US public post-9/11. Yet as the trial progressed, some hope

In response to a Dawn blog (The froth of Khan) by Nadeem F. Paracha, PTI's Umar Khayyam rebutts the unfair, unreasonable and partial analysis by the author.

U.S. Gen Stanley McChrystal told the UK's Financial Times newspaper (Jan. 25. 2010) that there had been “enough fighting”. He said a political solution in all conflicts

IT has been reported that Imran Khan, the chief of the Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf (PTI), is ready to convene an all-party conference on framing a new anti-terrorism strategy. He says the Taliban are ready for talks but it is now up to the government of Pakistan to seize the opportunity (Dec 22).

Kuwait: President PTI Kuwait Arshad Naeem Chaudhry explains the fundamentals of terrorism in his recent article.

Article by Information secretary south Punjab Jawad Amin Qureshi in Nawa-i-waqt appearing on 25th October 2009.

There is a dangerous pattern connecting the events happening in and around Pakistan today. Unless we can see this larger picture, we will be overwhelmed by the fallout and our detractors like the US will have

The Kerry Lugar Bill has woken Pakistanis up to the realities of debilitating conditionalities that accompany US aid. The Americans love to claim, “there is no free lunch”, but no one in Pakistan thought that the cost of supporting the US in its War on Terror would be so high for the nation.

In her article in The Nation, PTI spokesperson on foreign policy has discussed the upcoming UN security council session focusing on arms conrol an disarmament, specifically within the nuclear context

While US diplomats target their critics in Pakistan with a new ferocity, the US media and politicians target the Pakistan's nuclear and military capability. Taking the latter first, Dr Khan had barely gained his "freedom" when that murderous former Vice-President Dick Cheney, in a pre-taped interview to Fox News (Aug 30), declared that the Obama Administration should use the CIA to find out what Dr Khan was up to. Cheney also expressed pride in the Bush administration's aggressive use of drones in FATA. So should we assume that the increased presence of Blackwater and other unidentified US personnel in Islamabad may also have Dr Khan as a possible target?

If Pakistan’s Westernized class starts to study Islam, not only will it be able to help society fight sectarianism and extremism, but it will also make them realize what a progressive religion Islam is. They will also be able to help the Western world by articulating Islamic concepts. Recently, Prince Charles accepted that the Western world can learn from Islam. But how can this happen if the group that is in the best position to project Islam gets its attitudes from the West and considers Islam backward? Islam is a universal religion and that is why our Prophet (peace be upon him) was called a Mercy for all mankind.

First there has been the threat to the ordinary citizen of an effective occupation of Pakistan by the US, especially for those living in what is becoming a threateningly close proximity to the droves of Americans arriving in form or another.

Holbrooke's latest foray into Pakistan and the glib statements that have come forth reflect an American assumption of Pakistani gullibility. To some extent they are certainly correct, at least in terms of Pakistani officialdom which continuously seeks to place Pakistan at the alter of US subjugation Just

As another 14th August approaches, there is so much disarray and violence across the land and amid it all there is a qualitative increase in the dangerous trend of giving over sovereign space – both in terms of physical land as well as people – that one barely knows where to begin commenting.

Kuwait: President PTI Kuwait, Arshad Naeem Chaudhary has said that PTI stance of independent judiciary stands proved today by the correct decisions of the Supreme court. In a meeting of Kuwait excutive body, preparations for 14th August program were discussed.

The chaos that is spreading within the country is frightening and a result of bad or lack of governance on the one hand and US intrusions and questionable activities in Pakistan on the other. In the first instance, there is no civilian governance infrastructure to take over and govern the "cleared" areas in Malakand – but then there is no governance even in more central parts of the country.

In Europe the façade of tolerance and secular "liberalism" is so well maintained it is easy to be fooled into believing this is the reality. In fact there is an insidious social compact between the media, ruling elites and the white Christian majority to sustain this façade at all times .....

This is with reference to "The venomous B-teams" by Samad Khurram published in your newspaper on July 9.

The war on terror started by designating the Osama led Al-Qaeda, as the enemy. The size, lethality, and capability alluded to them, must have made Osama feel proud. Such a designation and exaggerations by those prosecuting the war was necessary to justify their actions, win public support and above all motivate the fighting men and women that the threat is existential.

Obama is certainly stretching his global goodwill to its limits. After critiquing the US invasion of Iraq when out of power, he has upped the military ante with the surge in Afghanistan; refocused on the military centric approach in Pakistan with a massive increase in drone attacks against Pakistani civilians (just so much "collateral damage" for the US of course).

The issue of militancy and the Taliban continues to be framed erroneously — most recently as a variant of the “with us or against us” choice: either one supports the military operation in Swat and Fata or one is supportive of the Taliban ......

Kuwait: In an article by president Kuwait, Arshad Naeem Chaudhary has said that lack of education and hard work has caused the decline of the nation.

Travelling back from usual monthly visit to my village in Rajanpur district, I was intending to write on the mistreatment of southern Punjab at the hands of the local feudals in power, the provincial government and the national leadership.

USA: In an article in Nawa-i-waqt, Tayyaba Zia discusses chairman Imran Khan's reactions about T-20 final and PTI's struggle for change.

Pakistanis cannot be allowed to savour joy and success peacefully. Just when the nation was tumultuously enjoying the magical victory of our cricket team, the hard reality of our hostile environment post-9/11 clouded over us once again.

As the world worries about possible strategies to cope with the menace of terrorism, it has almost forgotten to do something about the root causes which gave birth to the many different faces of terrorism which exist today, including state terrorism. There is hardly any discussion about why militancy has flourished so much during the last few decades. This militancy has very little to do with religion, rather its basis is mainly political.

First, a brief comment on the Obama address, since much has already been written about it. It was sad to see how he referred to the 3,000 plus innocent victims of 9/11, but not a word about the well over one million Muslim deaths as a result of the Bush-launched retaliatory war stretching from Iraq to Afghanistan and Pakistan

It has now become routine for the US to focus on Pakistan's nuclear weapons whenever there is trouble within the country. Clearly, the US has not recovered from its trauma of seeing a developing Muslim state acquire nuclear capability

Despite the very effective censorship on the media regarding the military operation in Swat, tales of despair are coming through – especially of those who have lost their families in the artillery and aerial bombardments and of those over two million still trapped in the war zone.

Kuwait: In an article, Kuwait president Arshad Naeem Chaudhary has said that Imran Khan slogan "Justice for all" has become a reality for all pakistanis.

It was Goebbels who came up with the brilliant theory that if the government wanted people to follow its policy, it must first instill fear in them and then slap all dissenters with the unpatriotic card. Anyone like me, who disagrees with the current indiscriminate military operation is accused of being a Taliban apologist.

The extraordinary fluidity in the Swat situation has led to widespread confusion about the government policy and its effectiveness. The pervasive ad-hocism amongst our national decision makers has led to flip-flop policies which have already proven to be disastrous.

To learn firsthand how reality loses its relevancy in the media-spin age has been an experience which explains why so many news reports eventually reveal themselves as having not an iota of reality about them. For me the reports on the APC called by Prime Minister Gilani were an interesting study on how what really happened can be totally lost sight of if the government can offer a fast spin and has compliant listeners in the media. Not that that helps the government's cause in the long run since it creates more distrust and makes it difficult for the government to replay the exercise the next time round. As someone who was present throughout the deliberations – which clearly did not seem to be off the record as may have been understood at the time – the final outcome reflected the non-consensus on the military operation with the leaders divided over the timing, the use of the option itself except as a last resort and so on.

The chaos following the Swat deal and the Nizam-e-Adl Regulation have been reflections of the failure of the writ of the state to actually enforce these arrangements. This has allowed the Taliban to go beyond the terms of their deal and assert a 'give-more' mantra similar to the US 'do-more' mantra

Kuwait: In an article, PTI Kuwait Coordinator Arshad Naeem Chaudhry has termed the Swat Nizam-e-Adal as the best choice in the prevailing situation of the region.

The reason why there is so much despondency in Pakistan is because there is no road map to get out of the so-called War on Terror - a nomenclature that even the Obama Administration has discarded as being a negative misnomer.

So Senator Kerry has come to do the usual doublespeak to the Pakistani people through its already confused leadership! Like the other US leaders before him, his understanding of Pakistan ran skin deep at best as he tried to justify the drones by declaring that terrorism existed in Pakistan before these attacks.

As the focus shifts from Afghanistan to Pakistan, attrition through time delay is the nature of this war. Pakistan’s establishment was neither prepared nor contemplated such a contingency when it gave un-stinted support to USA.

Mr. Naeem-ul-Haq Member CEC PTI, in response to an article which contained a distorted view of Lawyers movement published an article in Dawn, 6th April.

One was still recovering from the absurdity of referring to the much-touted Obama policy on Pakistan as "new" when his speech was simply a worn-out, scratched record we in Pakistan are being made to hear ad nauseam, when the ground realities of terrorism in Pakistan struck once again.

In an article in The News, PTI foreign policy spokesperson Dr. Shireen Mazari has said that US ignorance regarding the ground realities of Pakistan is a source of major threat to Pakistan, both in terms of its internal dynamics and external security concerns.

An article in a weekly magazine states, that due to extreme hard work of PTI Sialkot officials specially Farooq Meyer and Omer Farooq, PTI has become a serious threat to stronghold of PML-N in Sialkot

Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Shireen M Mazari

Just when one was about to commend the President for finally seeing the light in terms of agreeing to the NWFP government signing a deal with the TNSM for peace in Swat, we witnessed the usual backtracking from the Presidency, if Ms Rehman the official propagandist is to be believed. That, in turn, led to the ANP government being pushed into a state of confusion over what exactly it had signed on to in the agreement it made in front of representatives of all the major political parties – barring the JI which refused to attend. This has marked all the negotiations and agreements made to end militancy and violence earlier also – not just in Swat but also in FATA where US drones always put paid to any peace through negotiations.

Column by Deputy Central Information secretary, Engr. Iftikhar Ahmed Chaudhry in Daily Nawa-i-waqt

PTI Middle East Co Ordinator Muhammad Nadeem has criticized the leaders of Muslim world for not doing anything for Muslims of Gaza.

Without waiting for any investigative results, the US and its allies seem to have condemned Pakistan in the context of the Mumbai attacks. Condoleezza Rice’s statements in New Delhi and Islamabad have had an underlying accusatory sense — especially her declaration that Pakistan had a “special responsibility”.

The PTI- Lahore membership drive had enormous success and more than 150,000 people became members of PTI in two-weeks long campaign.