When Saddam Hussein s chief spokesman met with the U.S. secretary of state on the eve of the Kuwait War in January 1991, Tariq Aziz said something remarkable to James Baker. "Never," an Iraqi transcript quotes him, "has [an Arab] political regime
Daily Times
Muhammad Reza Kazimi
Liaquat Ali Khan was among the founding fathers of Pakistan. His contribution to the creation and consolidation of Pakistan has been immense. Yet the fact that no biography of this first Prime Minister of Pakistan and the last Honorary Secretary of the Muslim League has ever been written in English shows how far his role has been neglected. This book has the distinction of being the first biography of this historic figure. Based on primary and unpublished material including the Jinnah-Liaquat Correspondence, The All-India Muslim League Papers, and The Shamsul Hasan Collection, this book contains many interesting disclosures, notably about the Desai-Liaquat talks, Liaquat’s hostility to the British War efforts and the economic imperatives of the 1947 ‘Poor Man’s Budget’. This will be essential reading for all those who are interested in the recorded history of Pakistan.
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto remains an enigmatic figure of Pakistan’s politics long after his passing
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s political legacy is singularly greater than any other politician in Pakistan’s history except that of Muhammad Ali Jinnah the father of the nation.
The 1973’s Constitution of Pakistan is his most remarkable contribution. Despite much disfigurement in the 1980s, it is one of the few factors that have ensured stability and continuity in the state structure.
His fall from power was as meteoric as his rise. Many factors - structural, political, economic, and, not least, personal – combined to cause this and his tragic end.
Gobindram Watumull and his wife Ellen. | A clipping from St Louis Post Dispatch, October 19, 1947.
In 1865, German botanist William Hillebrand travelled to India with the intention of finding “East Indian” labour for the sugar plantations of Hawaii, where he lived and worked. Instead, he returned with plants and birds of breath-taking variety: crows, finches, the Chinese quail, Mongolian pheasants, the Indian sparrow and common mynah. By 1879, the mynah was a familiar species in Honolulu and soon in the other south-eastern islands of Hawaii.
For the first South Asians who set foot on the Hawaiian Islands around the early 1880s, the birds must have been a comforting sight. They had sailed over 11,000 km from Calcutta to Honolulu, a stopover that was still thousands of kilometres from their destination of mainland US and Canada, where the west coast offered attractive work opportunities. If nothing else, the soundscape in Hawaii must have been resonant to the
Introspection my dear countrymen, introspection
Deplorably, soon after Quaid s demise, his ideals were abandoned and his vision was lost
The writer is Director China Pakistan Study Centre at Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad and can be reached at [email protected]
Quaid-e-Azam’s 144
th birth anniversary came and passed. This important day that falls in December fills us with prideful emotions. We remember with veneration and adore the great statesman of his time who led us to win a dream homeland. Alongside commemorations, the day also reflects on how poorly we carried on with the ideals of our Quaid and failed to build on what was a pathway to sure success. So December 25 becomes a day mix of celebrations and anxieties. All living nations celebrate anniversaries of their founding fathers and remember their ideals and reiterate to live up to them, so do we, at least on the face of it.