MER Article Power and Patronage Only a dead nation remembers its heroes when they die. Real nations respect them when they are alive. ―Abdul Ghaffar Khan The assassination of Benazir Bhutto on December 27, 2007 sparked outrage and mourning, not least in the Western media. Exhibiting the overstated piety one might expect upon the Sameer Dossani • 9 min read
MER Article The Struggle for Pakistan Continues At around 5 pm on February 18 a dozen or so supporters of ex-premier Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) burst into song along the serpentine streets of Lahore’s old city. Down the road stood a phalanx of police and, behind them, a busload of flag-waving Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) activ Graham Usher • 18 min read
Current Analysis A Country at a Crossroads “A very frank discussion” -- so President Bush described his November 7 telephone conversation with Pervez Musharraf, four days after the Pakistani general imposed a state of emergency and dissolved the high court expected to rule his continued presidency unconstitutional. And frank the discussion p Kamran Asdar Ali • 2 min read
MER Article The Forgotten Refugees of Balochistan While the US “war on terror” in Afghanistan and areas in bordering Pakistan occupies the imagination of millions in the West, the simmering conflict in the Pakistani province of Balochistan (Baluchistan) an its disastrous effects on the civilian population evade the radar of popular media. In 2005, Stephen Dedalus • 6 min read
Current Analysis The Pakistan Taliban A severed head is waved before a baying crowd. The camera zooms in to show a second bloodied corpse, the eyes gouged out and a wad of cash stuffed in the mouth, swinging from a pole. He is one of 29 “criminals, drug pushers, bootleggers and extortionists” executed for running Graham Usher • 14 min read
Current Analysis Musharraf's Opening to Israel When George W. Bush arrives in Islamabad on March 4, 2006, his will be the first visit to Pakistan by a US president since Bill Clinton touched down there in March 2000. Aside from the coincidence of the month, the circumstances could hardly be more different. In 2000, Clinton stayed for barely five Graham Usher • 11 min read
MER Article Pakistani Islamists Gamble on the General In January 2002, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, who seized control of the Pakistani government in a 1999 military coup, delivered a major address to the nation—and to the world at large. Mindful of Pakistan’s designation by the global media as a crucial front in the US “war on terrorism,” Musharraf promised Kamran Asdar Ali • 14 min read
Current Analysis Is the US Ready for Democracy in the Mideast? Those in favor of an Iraq invasion argue that a regime change will be the first step in bringing democracy to the Middle East. But unnoticed in all the recent national focus on Iraq, recent elections in Morocco, Bahrain, Turkey and Pakistan indicate that democracy, albeit in small increments, has al Ian Urbina • 3 min read
Current Analysis Elections in Pakistan The results of Pakistan's October 10 elections to the national and provincial assemblies—the first such contests since Gen. Pervez Musharraf grabbed power in a bloodless coup in 1999—seem to have surprised many observers both within and outside the country. On election night and the morning after, Shahnaz Rouse • 8 min read
Current Analysis The Band Played On On May 8, a bomb blast rocked central Karachi, killing at least 14 people, including a number of French nationals. This suicide bombing comes on the heels of the brutal murder of Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal reporter, allegedly by Islamist extremist groups who had recently fallen out of the Kamran Asdar Ali • 8 min read
MER Article Pakistan Between Afghanistan and India Radical Islam and the activities of jihadi groups have been central to Pakistan’s relationship with Afghanistan as well as India. But the Pakistani military was already turning against such groups for internal reasons, before the US assault on al-Qaeda and the Taliban and this winter’s confrontation Hamza Alavi • 18 min read
Current Analysis Pakistan, "Pro-Taliban Elements" and Sectarian Strife In Western media coverage of Pakistan, political Islam and its jihadi offshoots—the "pro-Taliban elements" who pop up in reporting—have become regrettably synonymous with Islam and Pakistani Muslims in general. Pakistani Islamists, like their compatriots elsewhere, do advocate for an Islamic state, and jihadi groups in Pakistan Yunas Samad • 7 min read
