The Pashtun Tahafuz Movement Dilemma

Left to Right: Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) leader, Mohsin Dawar, and Afghan nationalist leader Ismail Youn on occasion of inauguration ceremony of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai in Kabul, Afghanistan (2020)

The emergence of the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM), as an organized voice of educated and progressive Pakistani Pashtuns, was like a fresh breeze in the suffocating environment of Pakistani Politics back in 2018. PTM has been successful to disseminate awareness on the plight of the Pashtun community suffering from the scourge of war in Tribal […]

US Peace Deal with the Taliban: An Ethnic Dimension

CNN-US.Envoy-Zalmay.Khalilzad-and-Taliban-Terrorists-HandShake-Doha-Qatar-Feb29-2020

The US deal with the Taliban has had several dimensions but one dimension that is overlooked is the ethnic or tribal one. All sides involved in promoting the deal, have had an element of the ethnic contribution that facilitated or coalesced into a deal or in effect triumph of the Taliban and Pakistan. Firstly Pakistan, […]

Qassem Soleimani – a Villain or a Savior

Gen. Qassem Soleimani - Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP

Early on Friday morning, January 3, 2020, US rocket attacks in Baghdad International Airport killed Qassem Soleimani, the commander of Quds forces of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), with his small entourage. Among those killed was Jamal Jafar Mohammad Ali al Ibrahim, a.k.a. Abu Mahdi al Muhandis, the leader of Kata’ib Hizbullah and deputy chief […]

US Deal with the Taliban will not Bring Peace to Afghanistan

Nine rounds of talks between the US and the Taliban delegations ended in early September in Doha, Qatar. According to the statements made by US envoy, the two sides are “at the threshold of an agreement.” US talks with the Taliban were part of an effort to facilitate US withdrawal from Afghanistan before the 2020 […]