Articles for category: Opinion

Sajid Hussain

A guide to becoming a patriotic Pakistani

This article, written by novelist and journalist Mohammed Hanif in Urdu, was published on BBC Urdu on November 10, 2016. Translation of Hanif’s nuanced and subtle writings is no easy job. The translator accepts responsibility for the numerous shortcomings that you might find in the English version. When certificates for traitors, enemies of the country and ...

Farah Naz Baloch

Identification of women in our society

While living in a patriarchal society the identification of women is questionable. No justice can be found regarding gender issues as from the very beginning woman is made as the ‘other’ to man, and man has been the subject to the object (woman) A French writer, Simon de Beauvoir, in her book The Second Sex, ...

M.K. Abdul

Naela’s demand for govt in exile backfires

Baloch activist Naela Qadri is in India again and this time she is seeking the Indian government’s help to form a Baloch government in exile. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s statement about highlighting the Baloch cause in the aftermath of the latest tensions between Pakistan and India on Kashmir has given a new lifeline to ...

A thin red line

Revolutionary struggles demand of its proponents, leaders and supporters that if anyone assumes authority in the name of the people it also means that he or they are answerable to people and cannot act arbitrarily by making peoples’ will the excuse for the use or misuse of that authority. No one can be allowed to ...

Zahid Abdulla

Moral policing in Turbat varsity

I was not shocked at all. I know such things happen in a society where the religious and political narratives are highly concentrated on controlling the “inappropriate interactions” between male and female. I am referring to the notice issued by the University of Turbat’s Office of the Registrar (Kech) on Wednesday March 18, 2016. The ...

Is nationalism fascism?

Recently the ‘Sindh Writers and Thinkers Forum’ in Karachi arranged a dialogue on ‘Internationalism and nationalism’’ after a debate in Sindh in which some people equated nationalism with fascism. I was invited by friends and I expressed my views and the piece below was the basis of my talk. A debate is going on in ...

Salahuddin Baloch

Pakistan keeping British legacy alive in Balochistan

You might not believe but everything seems to be the same in Balochistan for the past 200 years. Even the British Indian railway line remains totally unchanged and the new colonial master, Pakistan, has not bothered to add an inch to it. Pakistan is also copying the British counter insurgency tactics – albeit a little ...

Sajid Hussain

Are Baloch fighting Pakistan or one another?

Baloch are a curious people. They know they are being beaten to death and they understand that the only way to survival is to hold each other’s hand. But they are reluctant to do that because everyone thinks the other one’s hand is dirty. All Baloch political and militant groups have done some dirty work ...

M.K. Abdul

Dr Allah Nazar, BLF, leadership

When Franklin D. Roosevelt, the U.S. president (1933-1945), died in April 1945, the U.S soldiers were still fighting in the World War II (WWII), the deadliest war in the world history. One American soldier, deployed in Europe, wrote to his wife living in the US: We’re sorry to hear the news about Roosevelt’s death, but ...

Salma Baloch

If you can, set on fire Chairman’s memories

Ghulam Mohammed Baloch was the founder of the Baloch National Movement. Popularly, known as Chairman among the Baloch, he is considered the pioneer of the Baloch separatist movement. He was jailed for years several times. On April 3, 2009, he was abducted by Pakistan military officials from his lawyer’s office in Turbat. Seven days later, ...