Adil Najam
Let me confess that I have a certain fondness for our Prime Minister, Syed Yousuf Raza Gillani.
He may not be an orator or even the take-charge leader that we needed, but there seems to be a certain air of genteelness and dignity about him. You get the sense- or, at least have the hope, that even if he does not always do the right thing, he would recognize and cringe at that which is obviously bad – and, maybe, even act on his convictions sometimes.
I still invest hopes in him, but I realize that I may well be wrong on all the above. But maybe this is why I have taken such affront to a newsitem in Daily Times that is otherwise unremarkable, even normal in what goes for politics in Pakistan.
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Adil Najam
As the politics of intrigue and rumor heats up, even more, in Pakistan and after the recent dramatic political events, the news of Pakistan’s most important existential battle – against the extremism of the Taliban and their ilk – seems to have slid off the front pages.
Yet, a news item in The News reminds us that the murderous militants are now setting their eyes towards District Dir, after gaining control of Swat. One got a better glimpse into the mind of one of the key players in the Swat saga, Sufi Mohammed, in an interview given to Daily Times’ Peshawar Bureau Chief Iqbal Khattak. Speaking in Mingora, the 74 year-old father-in-law of militant leader Fazlulah gives many important glimpses into his own thinking and priorities.
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