You can’t make this stuff up: Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, leader of the opposition in the National Assembly, held a press conference on September 13 to ‘prove’ that the fact that his wife and children are US nationals does not…
Author Archive for Mehreen Zahra-Malik
A post-9/11 state with a pre-9/11 mindset?
by Mehreen Zahra-Malik •
Supreme Defiance
by Mehreen Zahra-Malik •
Zafar Qureshi can’t catch a break. Restored to his position at the Federal Investigation Agency on the orders of the Supreme Court, what was to be his first day back on the job never happened because of a bomb threat.…
From jalopy to juggernaut?
by Mehreen Zahra-Malik •
ISLAMABAD: With much of the political firmament only now beginning to lay down the planks of their next electoral campaigns, one man and his party is already up and running. The question: is the Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaaf a jalopy or a…
Kharotabad killings and the cover up
by Mehreen Zahra-Malik •
Jamal Tarakai had barely sat down to a late lunch on May 17 when he heard gunshots. Leaving his food untouched, he jumped on his motorbike and drove towards the source of the noise. About 200 metres from his home…
Hucksters and Hacks
by Mehreen Zahra-Malik •
Watch the firestorm of shame and rage that the News of the Worldscandal has unleashed on both sides of the Atlantic, and one thing will become painfully obvious: no phone-hacking scandal could ever cause the media heavens to fall here in…
General Confusion
by Mehreen Zahra-Malik •
“As you may have heard,” Gen. Ashfaq Kayani said, calmly lighting another cigarette, “I’m India-centric.” The Army chief was referencing Bob Woodward’s assessment in Obama’s Wars, which had just been released. The 30-odd journalists who were at the briefing in Rawalpindi…
Intelligence overkill?
by Mehreen Zahra-Malik •
We all know what went wrong in the weeks before, and during, the US operation to take out Osama. The bewildering array of Pakistani intelligence groups messed up: no real skills, no good information, no action. We know what went…
Sow Mumbai, Reap Karachi?
by Mehreen Zahra-Malik •
This was irony at its cruelest. Just as David Headley took the stand in Chicago and alleged that the terrorists behind the 2008 Mumbai attacks were trained by Pakistan Navy’s Frogmen, troops in Karachi were almost done retaking the PNS…