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Battling for Democracy
October, 11 2011 | Nasruddin Hemati
Following months of violence and killing, Yemeni president promised to leave power. Since March this year, when Arab spring spread to Yemen, the long ruling Ali Abdullah Saleh has denied handing over the power to people. Domestic pressures and international calls have failed making him leave autocratic presidency in favor of a democratic regime ...
Fighting Corruption - Going after the Corrupt Politician
October, 11 2011 | Mehdi Rezaie
Corruption and lots of it still remains among the most pressing challenges that Afghanistan faces. The Wikileaks cables released by the whistle blowing website managed by Julian Assange has thrown light on the extent and depth of how corruption has affected, how ...
The Strike of Samin Barakzai
October, 11 2011 | Jawad Rahmani
It has been eight consecutive days that Samin Barakzai, a female lawmaker,from western Herat Province has gone on hunger strike. There is serious concern about her health, like she might get kidney and stomach problems if she continued strike. Already she is in severe condition as her photos posted on internet and Media showing her ...
“Silence on a Crime is a Crime in Itself”
October, 10 2011 | Sher Ali Yecha
The Quetta city of Pakistan has turned into a river of blood as the genocide of a particular community – the Hazaras – continues. The terrorism practiced on Hazaras there, began as early as 1997 and has taken lives of more than 600 innocent people so far. For a clear understanding on how the genocide of Hazaras is taking place in ...
How to Win the Minds Of Afghans?
October, 10 2011 | Farman Nawaz
Pakistan's thirty years Afghan policy bore fruit and last days we saw an anti-Pakistan rally in Kabul and now a strategic pact between India and Afghanistan. Afghans protested against Pakistan's interference in Afghanistan internal matters. But here in Pakistan our leaders are reminding Afghans to unite against the 'common enemy' while ...
Do not Lose Hope on Afghanistan
October, 09 2011 | Mehdi Rezaie
There are signs of increasing concern and rising apprehension in the Western capitals and media regarding the state of affairs in Afghanistan as the deadline of 2014 draws closer while the graph of insurgency and violence continues its sharp climb. The irony is that on October 7, as Afghanistan moved past the tenth anniversary of U.S. attacks ...
Wars, Their Vitality and Their Outcomes
October, 09 2011 | Dilawar Sharzai
Wars have always played a dominant role in human societies, if not positive all the times. There are many people in the world who consider that wars are necessary, though wars bring a lot of miseries with them. They even go to the extreme by calling them as a precondition to peace. But, on the other hand, there are many people who believe that ...
Twin Brother and Great Friend
October, 09 2011 | Muhammad Younas
"Pakistan is a twin brother, India is a great friend and the agreement we signed with our friend will not affect our brother," Mr. Karzai said on Wednesday and further added that the "signing of the strategic partnership with India is not directed against any country. It is not directed against any other entity. This is for Afghanistan ...
Ethnic Cleansing of a Minority in Pakistan
October, 08 2011 | By Abbas Daiyar
Hundreds of Afghan civil society and human rights activists held a demonstration in Kabul on Friday protesting against ethnic cleansing of a particular minority group in Pakistan. They were holding banners calling the UN to take notice of an ethnic cleansing in Quetta, where, according to Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, more than ...
A Decade Old War and Instability
October, 08 2011 | By Dilawar Sharzai
Keeping in mind the history and socio-political scenario in Afghanistan, one can conclude that the current relative stability has been earned hardly. So, it must be cared for and all the indications of worsening of situation in the country must be dealt with, seriously. In the ongoing transition period there are indications of the worsening ...
The Prospective of Women Achievements is not Bleak
October, 08 2011 | Mohammad Jawad
An International Aid Agency, Oxfam, On October 3, warned that a quick-fix bargain for peace could reverse improvements for Afghan women's rights gained over the last decade. The organization alarmed that if women put out of the core search for peace, they would face a dangerous future after 2014, the deadline for completion of military ...
Karzai Plays Well
October, 06 2011 | Jawad Rahmani
For the first time when Afghan Independent Election Commission announced the result of parliamentary election which prompted some circles within and out of the country to claim that oppositions of President Karzai had largely found way into the house, the thing which was recognized as slap on his face and a preface for new round of ...
Afghan-Indian Strategic Pact
October, 06 2011 | Dilawar Sharzai
The strategic pact between Afghanistan and India, though has great value for Afghanistan, comes at such a period of time that it is bound to have negative impacts on the Af-Pak relations that have been going through a deteriorating trend specifically after the attacks on US Embassy and NATO head quarters and the death of Burhand ud din Rabbani. Both the incidents ...
Britain: Policing, Corruption and Racism
October, 06 2011 | Musa Khan Jalalzai
The brilliant history of British police, established under the Metropolitan Act 1829 by Sir Robert Peel has recently become the centre of debate across Europe, when the corruption and racism cases of its officers were reported in local newspapers. These and other cases of abuse disappointed civil society and business communities ...
No End to Ethno-sectarian Killings in Pakistan
October, 05 2011 | Dilawar Sharzai
The wave of ethnic and sectarian killings in Pakistan is getting very intense with each passing day. Pakistan has been suffering from the negative impacts of terrorism to a large extend. As Pakistan opted to join hand with US in the war against terrorism, the terrorist networks in Pakistan have displayed vehement response. They have ...
The Future of Conflict in Afghanistan
October, 05 2011 | Mehdi Rezaie
It is October and it was exactly ten years ago in the October of 2001 that the Taliban regime was toppled under the assault of international and Afghan allies. The ouster of the Taliban regime was a turning point in the history of Afghanistan. It promised to not only bring better days for the people of Afghanistan, but also to restore ...
Karzai! Again with Anti Pakistan Temper
October, 04 2011 | Dr. Hussain Yasa
Yesterday evening, in his nationwide address, President Karzai said that against our expectations the Pakistani establishment didn't help us in bring peace and stability in Afghanistan. Insisting on terrorism as the common menace for both the countries he said that instead of Taliban direct talks Pakistan will be preferred. He was trying to ...
New Policy of Negotiations with Pakistan
October, 04 2011 | Abbas Daiyar
The 11-minutes speech of President Karzai to the nation live on RTA last night was expected to announce a strategy or roadmap about the post-Rabbani peace, the strategic partnership with the US, or making a sense of his vague statements regarding direct talks with Pakistan, instead of Taliban. But he repeated the same rhetoric, ...
A Victim of Being Hazara and Shia in Pakistan
October, 04 2011 | Muhammad Younas
After 9/11, international forces led by American forces attacked on Taliban in Afghanistan and it took a month to oust Taliban along with Al-Qaida and other Islamic militant groups from Kabul who had been ruling Afghanistan since September 1996. It was Pakistani intelligence agencies, which played pivotal role in the making of ...
The Death of an Illusionary Friend
October, 03 2011 | Jawad Rahmani
Afghan government decisions—concealing the upcoming Pakistan's Prime Minister, Yosuf Reza Gilani's visit, and postponing the second round of Joint Peace Council Conference that was about to be held in Kabul city, the capital——set me on the dais of extreme astonishment. However, within past ten years, the bilateral relation has not always gone on ...
Insecurity Requires Serious Commitment
October, 03 2011 | Abdul Samad Haidari
The Daredevil terrorist attack in heart of Kabul, in one of the highest-security zone of the capital is indeed the ultimate matter of concern and discussion. A thread blasts targeting the U.S embassy and NATO's headquarters paralyzing all the precautionary measures that the government and the foreign establishments had taken speaks of ...
A State is Known by the Rights it Maintains
Dilawar Sharzai | October, 03 2011
The society consists of a large number of people whose mutual relations are conducted by certain well established rules of conduct. Unless people accept certain restraints and responsibilities towards each other, social life will not be possible. The conditions created by the state to ensure the security of the individual and property are ...
Da Afghanistan Bank and our National Economy
October, 02 2011 | Mehdi Rezaie
The Central Bank of Afghanistan, Da Afghanistan Bank, is the highest public institution in the country in whose hands the powers for management of Afghanistan's economy are vested. As any other Central Bank, Da Afghanistan Bank is responsible for a wide array of crucial issues related to the economy of Afghanistan and the standard of ...
Pushing to Fight
October, 02 2011 | Nasruddin Memati
In the latest attempt to push Haqqani network to impasse, NATO forces said Saturday that they had captured a senior Haqqani network member in Afghanistan. US forces have recently embarked on some harsh measures against the brutal group led by Sirajuddin Haqqani. The group's aggressive attacks have triggered tensions between the US and ...
The Law Emanates from the Will to Power
October, 02 2011 | Dilawar Sharzai
As human societies kept on evolving, the necessity for codified rules and regulations started being felt intensely. With the societies turning more complex and human relations and interaction becoming more frequent and usual, the requirement of marking a difference between what is perceived to be right or wrong became inevitable. The human ...
President Karzai’s Dilemma
October, 01 2011 | Mehdi Rezaie
President Hamid Karzai has been in dire straits ever since the assassination of Burhanuddin Rabbani, the ex-president and chairman of the High Peace Council. The assassination robbed Mr. Karzai of an invaluable ally who provided the President with a formidable bridgehead towards a wide segment of Afghan ethnic mosaic. In the ...
An Ideal State is the Visible Embodiment of Justice
October, 01 2011 | Dilawar Sharzai
Most of the political philosophers and analysts believe that justice is one of the basic pillars on which the building of a political system can be constructed. Justice, in simplest words, is 'to give what a person deserves' or 'it is what the courts offer' or else 'it is what law tends to achieve'. But these definitions of justice are too simplistic and concise ...
Breathing Turns Difficult in Kabul
October, 01 2011 | Mohd. Ahsan
Kabul, the capital of Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a city where according to health pundits, pollution forms greater threat to life of people than the insecurity does. The hundreds of thousands of vehicles have turned healthy breathing a dream while burning of coal and wood for heating purposes during cold season create monstrous ...
The Eurozone Debt Crisis - More to Come?
September 29, 2011 | Mehdi Rezaie
The European Union and the Eurozone member countries - the bloc of countries that have adopted Euro as their common currency - are having sleepless nights. The problems with the financial situation of Greece, a member country, have now come to head and threaten a catastrophic collapse of the European financial and monetary union if ...
J.S. Mill, Individual, Democracy and Proportional Representation
September 29, 2011 | Dilawar Sharzai
With the rise of the concepts of individualism and utilitarianism in Europe, the concepts of individual rights and liberty also became prominent. The political thinkers like Bentham and J.S. Mill played dominant roles in defining the roles, responsibilities and liberty of individual in relation to the society. Both were great English ...
Animosity Damages both Countries
September 29, 2011 | Jawad Rahmani
Have you ever found Afghans tear all communal, lingual and religious ties apart and be glued to one another that no divisive force can poke in their unity? Just make that fantasy. Yes, fantasy, because, presently, the notion of a united Afghan without an external force seems unlikely and unattainable for many. Partly ...
The House of Nation in Disarray
September 28, 2011 | Mehdi Rezaie
It has been more than a year since the parliamentary elections opened up another chapter, albeit controversial, in Afghanistan's post-Taliban experience with democracy. The happenings, ever since, have been bitter with the brutal political tug of war, involving the three branches of the state, casting a long shadow over ...
Heightening Position of Women in Saudi Arabia
September 28, 2011 | Dilawar Sharzai
Through out most part of history women have been discriminated in some way or the other. Most of the human societies in history have been patriarchal with men having the upper hand in all the institutions of the society, while women have suffered from various forms of discriminations designed in the name of religion, tradition, values and ...
Breakfast with the Taliban
September 28, 2011 | Adam Valen Levinson
One Saturday in June, traffic was light on the road from Kabul to the town of Bamyan, nestled deep in a high valley lined with sandstone cliffs 240 kilometers to the northwest. But for all the paving efforts that have made it among the smoothest in the country, this route from the Afghan capital through the 10,000-foot-high Shibar pass is less ...
Working Towards Social Justice
September 27, 2011 | Mehdi Rezaie
Achieving social justice in Afghanistan, having been the omnipresent mantra of all in the early years of the post-Taliban era, has now been relegated to the bottom of the national and international agenda for Afghanistan. Social justice is all about creating a just and fair society where every human being as a citizen enjoys a range of ...