Posts From Zaki Khalid
Special Forces are unconventional forces used to execute irregular warfare in terrains which are otherwise difficult to operate in for conventional troops; they are almost always used for strategic objectives. Selection in such units across the world are very difficult as they have strict recruitment criteria. States which are known to exert regional and global influence tend to employ Special Forces as tools of exerting state policy abroad. Some notable
Addressing the Quetta Municipality on June 15, 1948, Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah made the following remarks: “While, however, one must love one’s town and work for its welfare–indeed because of it–one must love better one’s country and work more devotedly for it. Local attachments have their value but what is the value and strength of a “part” except within the “whole”. Yet this is a truth people so easily seem
Indian media is known to regularly incline towards sensationalism, even at the expense of covering more important issues. Electronic media in India, unlike the comparatively independent and serious print media, often reflects a strong pro-establishment narrative. This is the reason why red tickers and flashes on “Breaking News” seem to take the very pulse out of an ordinary viewer who would perhaps be more concerned with domestic sanitation, healthcare, human
Beheadings, mutilations, horrific executions; these are just some of the examples related to blood, gore and violence which global media likes to exploit time and again to attain maximum viewer ratings. Naturally, the more the ratings, the more sponsors a channel will get during regular airtime. For media owners, the smell of fresh money signals the dawn of an all-time high in competitive market standing. In Pakistan, state-owned Pakistan Television
Extremism is defined in the Merriam-Webster dictionary as, “belief in and support for ideas that are very far from what most people consider correct or reasonable”. Though religious extremism is singled out in today’s media reports, Pakistanis face several forms of it day in and day out. In the following paragraphs, we will briefly study the three prominent categories of extremism in Pakistan along with relevant examples to give a
The founding fathers of Pakistan laid out the concept of Pakistan in clear, unambiguous terms; it would be a separate homeland for the Muslims of the (Indian) Subcontinent. This dream turned into reality on August 14, 1947 when the world witnessed a new country being carved out of India’s north-west. There was no ‘hidden agenda’ behind Pakistan’s establishment. On the contrary, our founding fathers were brave enough to propagate their
Merriam Webster dictionary defines the word “resilience” as “the ability to become strong, healthy, or successful again after something bad happens” or “the ability of something to return to its original shape after it has been pulled, stretched, pressed, bent, etc”. The latter definition specifically concerns objects, but from whatever Pakistan has undergone since its independence, it wouldn’t be wrong to say the state was also “stretched” i.e. over-stretched in
According to statistics updated on June 14, 2015 by the South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATA), almost 58,055 Pakistanis (civilians and military personnel) have lost their lives to terrorism since 2003. This means that around 4,838 people were killed per year on an average. These figures reflect the next-to-none assurance of human security in a country that has played the role of a frontline state in the so-called War on Terrorism.
On 12 June 2015, Pakistan’s Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) announced in its press release that the first ever Pakistan-Russia Staff Talks in military history were being held in Rawalpindi. To be more precise, with the Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee. Leading the visiting delegation is Vice Admiral Volozhinskiy Andrey Olgertovich, Deputy Chief of Main Operations and Director of the General State Armed Forces of Russian Federation. To clarify further,
On 24 December 2014, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in a televised address to the country announced a ‘National Action Plan’ (NAP) to viciously counter the forces of terrorism and extremism. A few weeks later, NAP appeared in the form of a constitutional amendment, empowering the courts to prosecute convicted militants and their financers (challenged recently by a group of mafia lawyers). What is NAP? It is a consolidated 20-point national
