Saleem's Post

  Major General Inam Ul Haque discusses various aspects of the Sino-U.S. rivalry  in his opinion piece dated 11 January 2024 .  He bases his analysis on comparing two articles by eminent U.S. journalist  Fareed Zakaria.   “The Arrogant Empire", written by Zakaria in the 23 March 1991 issue of  Newsweek  magazine, was just before the First Gulf War (17 January- 28 February 1991). This article, influenced by the lukewarm European response to the  U.S.  geostrategic goals, supported the Bush administration's argument that  ‘the war will look better when it is over’.   The same author, in "The Self Doubting Super Power" - his second article published in the January-February 2024 issue of the  Foreign Affairs, observes that, whereas in 2024  powers like China, Russia, and India, etc no longer follow the US diktat,   it need not be a cause for panic and self-doubt by Washington.  Going back, we observe that in 199...

  Major General Inam Ul Haque, in his opinion piece dated 7 January 2024, writes about the misunderstanding and confusion surrounding Pakistan’s policies regarding support for the Afghan refugees. His discourse focuses on the humanitarian dimension of the relationship - its impact on both societies; the need for repatriation of refugees and its linkage with the Afghan Government’s policies; and the shift in Pakistan’s Afghan policy. The writer has made a praiseworthy effort to remove the mental cobwebs that distract the people not familiar with the ground realities. Since the dawn of history, the border between the Hindustan Peninsula and its North Western regions has been like a permeable membrane that expanded and contracted intermittently.  Throughout history, the human waves flowed uninterrupted across the Khyber and Bolan pass into the fertile Sindh and Gangetic valleys. Even though the British, after dismantling the Mughal Empire, aggressively and systematically g...

  Major General Inam Ul Haque, in his opinion piece published in Express Tribune on  4 January 2024,  mentions the upheavals witnessed by the world during 2023. His  description of the previous year reminds me of the phrase “Kettle of Fish”. The origin of this phrase remains hidden in the mists of time, but it is guessed to have originated in Scotland in the 18th century. At that time, "kettle" referred to a cooking pot or cauldron, and "fish" was a term used for a group of people or things. The expression means something awkward, tumultuous, or a real mess. While mentioning the tumult of the bygone year, the writer draws attention to the “Wars in Gaza and Ukraine, climate change, the relative decline of democracy and the free world, the disconnect between the global Street and the State, uncertain and uneven economic development, and the slow death of globalization, etc. He may have also included the stillborn India–Middle East–Europe Corridor sponsored by Biden....

  Major General Inam Ul Haque, in his articles published in The Herald Tribune on 21  December and 28 December 2023, expresses his opinion on the facets of terrorism relevant to Pakistan. In Terrorism and Pakistan’s Response – the first article- the writer delves into a philosophical search to explain the origins of terrorism and the motivations behind it. He explains that terrorism is considered an offshoot of extremism which manifests itself in both violent and non-violent forms. When violent, extremism morphs into radicalization where the terrorist loses mental equilibrium. Body, mind, and spirituality are the attributes that, depending upon the thinking of the scholars, govern human behavior. Ideally, these three attributes, or at least two of them, should be in synchronicity to achieve balance in personality.  Terrorism is the blood that oozes out of the patient’s nostrils when he suffers from a brain hemorrhage. Bleeding is the symptom, not the real cause of hemor...