Afrah Jamal

By: Afrah Jamal Published in Daily Times / Saturday, June 09, 2012 ( Published with a wrong Pix..that's not me..hope it gets fixed on Daily Times site soon) Update: (Pix on DT website Fixed. Thanks DT) & when they revamped the site in 2014, the wrong pix was uploaded again. Ah well. i tried. Minor aftershocks from the Abbottabad raid when they hit tend to put a damper on the Pak-US relationship. Of the two actors to receive star billing in that operation, one is dead, and the other is behind bars . The sequel featuring a dodgy doctor may not have the same raw appeal as the Osama liquidation original but it does offer up some stirring moments from the shadowy world of espionage. Shakeel Afridi comes highly recommended by the agency (not our own) and government officials (again not our own). The revelation about the good doctor’s duplicity has unnerved many the same way the wicked terrorist’s discovery by the US SEALs team did. Notwithstanding ringing endorsements b...

PUBLISHED IN THE POST AS Swat deal: a hostile takeover? SEP 22, 2008 When a house came under rocket attack in Peshawar cantonment on 19th May, the incident went without serious comment because after all, these acts are commonplace enough in 2008. What made it significant for me was that the very house had once been my home. That would be the year when Soviets had all but withdrawn from Afghanistan and the only close call then had been an airspace incursion from the Afghan side of the border . But, what happened in the confrontation between the fearless Afghan pilot and military officials present that day is no where as alarming as what happened 19 years later with the fearsome pro-Taliban and the State officials elected today . A peace treaty in war torn Swat has a nice ring to it. Does a pacification strategy towards militancy mean that a country which stood up to Communism capitulated to Fascism? Not so, say government officials who hasten to draw a distinction between peace lovi...