Saad Khan

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari visited India on last Sunday. It was planned as a private visit to a famous Sufi shrine but as things transpired; it turned into a semi-official visit. The president took a large entourage with him on taxpayers' money. He also donated

There have been abnormally high pollen counts in the southern United States. On March 19, Atlanta saw a pollen count of 9,000 particles per cubic meter, a new record from the previous high of 8,164 pollens per cubic meter. You will find the allergy maps glowing bright red...

Pakistanis have been jolted by two major shocks this week. The first one is about massive rigging of the recently concluded Senate elections. The second one is the resurfacing of a 22 year-old scandal. One in which the military was accused of distributing money to politicians to win electoral favors....

A little over 1.7 million Afghan refugees live in Pakistan. That is the official figure from the United Nations High Commission for Refugees. A statistic that is only half true. According to Pakistani government's counts, 2.15 million registered Afghan refugees are living in the country. It...

Nothing good is coming out of Syria. Bashar al-Assad is adamant on turning a deaf ear to international criticism and pleadings by human rights activists to stop killing his own people. The UN Security Council has been held hostage by Russia and China and can't even pass a meek condemnatory...

There has been much speculation about the future of democracy in Pakistan these days. Prophets of gloom are seeing generals at the ready. Optimists are hoping for a reconciliation. Reality lies between the two extremes. While the military is not ready to stage a coup, there are also fewer chances...

Suicide bombings are a completely new phenomenon in Syria. During the 10-month long struggle for democracy, the activists largely remained peaceful despite the inhumane crackdown by the Assad regime. The recent bombings -- the latest of which occurred on Friday when 26 people were killed in the capital...

Another year is coming to a close in Pakistan. One in which the nation saw its fortunes dwindling further. There was no respite from floods though they affected a smaller region this time. Terrorist attacks and drone strikes claimed hundreds of lives and the political circus and economic woes continued....

President Asif Ali Zardari is back from Dubai, where he went to seek medical treatment. His departure from the national scene set off a number of rumors. The most popular being that he will not return and will possibly resign. In response, the president went to the extent of

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, who assumed office in September 2008, is facing tough times. He is on a mysterious tour to Dubai, apparently to receive medical treatment but rumor mills are in full swing about his resignation and self-imposed exile. His career, if it actually ends, is...

After killing over 3,500 people, the brutal dictator of Syria is finally feeling the heat. He initially accepted the Arab League plan, under which he simply had to rein in on his murderous army. Later on, however, he seems to have opted out of it. On Sunday, which...

Steven Paul Jobs, the God to many, is not my hero and never will attain such a position. He has been eulogized as the savior of the modern world. Some are even saying that the world would not have been the same without him. Now that three weeks have passed...

Pakistanis share a love-hate relationship with China. They love to turn to China if things are not good on the Western -- well, mostly American -- front. They are quick to ditch the long-term strategic understanding with China if the United States warms up due to changing international scenarios. In...

There is a talk of creating new provinces in Pakistan. The proposition has caught momentum with the political parties of Pakistan, especially the PPP that rules at the center and in two of the current four provinces of Pakistan. The inspiration comes from the arch rival India, where 28 states...

Waziristan may not be the most dangerous area in Pakistan. Karachi, the largest city of Pakistan and its financial and industrial hub, is witnessing increased violence in recent months. Although the cosmopolitan city of 15 million people is not new to violence, body count was relatively low until...

In February 1982, thousands of Syrians were ruthlessly massacred in Hama, under the direct orders of Hafez al-Assad. Twenty-nine years later, his heir is contemplating to follow in his father's footsteps. He has already killed thousands during the last three months of brutal crackdown on peaceful democracy activists....

The New York Times dropped a bombshell when it reported that Pakistan Army Chief General Ashfaq Kiyani is facing a rebellion among the rank-and-file. A "colonels' coup" might be on the cards, according to the newspaper. Is that really the case? And what will be the line of...

More than two hundred people have been killed by militants in Pakistan during the last thirty days, three-fourths of them being military recruits, naval commandos, rangers, soldiers, and cops. The most brazen terrorist attack ever since the infiltration of the military headquarters in 2009 also took place during this time,...

President Barack Obama has finally delivered his much anticipated speech on the Middle East. The highlight remained his endorsement of the settlement of Israel-Palestine conflict based on 1967 borders. This comes after two-and-a-half years of vacillating between different proposals and doing practically nothing. His speech included a drubbing...

Osama bin Laden's death took center stage on global media and rightly so because it was an event of the decade. Five days have passed since that episode and it is about time to look at other, and more important issues. More than 600 people have been killed...