Thursday, October 11, 2012
Amir Mateen
TANK: The culture of sycophancy that remains the hallmark of the Pakistani brand of politics is beginning to engulf Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf as well, perhaps a little too early. A 48-hour journey along the PTI’s SUV-infested ...

Wednesday, October 10, 2012
By Amir Mateen
TANK, Waziristan: The biggest challenge for Imran Khan will be to balance between the rich elite that is constantly jockeying to win his attention and the highly-spirited young masses who see him as the avatar who will lead them to ...

Tuesday, October 09, 2012
Amir Mateen
TANK: No matter how cynical you may be, it was difficult not to accept that Imran Khan’s rally against US drone attacks in Waziristan was an effective and a massive protest by any standards. It remains debatable whether this might ...

Wednesday, October 03, 2012
By Amir Mateen
Eyewitness India-4 AMRITSAR: There is definitely deep chemistry between the people of East and West Punjabs that evokes instant, in the words of former Indian Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh, “pappian and japhian” (kisses and ...

Monday, October 01, 2012
Amir Mateen
AMRITSAR: A visit to Golden Temple is always a spiritual experience. The Pakistani contingent of parliamentarians on a visit to Amritsar was lucky to have arrived at the solemn occasion of Guru Granth Sahib’s birthday. The Golden ...

Saturday, September 29, 2012
Amir Mateen
AMRITSAR: Lahore and Amritsar have a strange umbilical relationship. A common history binds them together in more ways than one. The biggest influence on Lahore’s contemporary culture and cuisine is that of Kashmiris who migrated ...

Friday, September 28, 2012
Amir Mateen
AMRITSAR: Crossing over to India through Wagah border can be an emotional experience, especially for those who know India only through the stories of their parents, official propaganda or worse, Bolllywood. Most of the 12 ...

Monday, June 11, 2012
Amir Mateen
QUETTA: Here in Balochistan the recently held census is more than—well—just counting of people. It’s a ‘censusgeddon’ this time around. In the steamingly polarised environment, political combatants await its result with a bated ...

Saturday, June 09, 2012
Amir Mateen
QUETTA: People in Balochistan hate it when the self-styled armchair experts sitting in Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi generalize about them. Baloch intellectual Dr Janazeb Jamaldini is incensed every time “my Punjabi friends” call him ...

Friday, June 08, 2012
Amir Mateen
QUETTA: The evolutionary nature of Pashtun and Baloch people’s coexistence in Balochistan has transcended to a new complicated level, and in the process spawning a whole new range of complications with pronounced ethnic overtones. ...