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Umer Farooq

Umer Farooq

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Poverty Cannot Be A Permanent Status

Poverty Cannot Be A Permanent Status
yesterday 10

The Friday Times

Umer Farooq

The Poor Of Pakistan And God-Fearing Political Class

The Poor Of Pakistan And God-Fearing Political Class
16.02.2025 6

The Friday Times

Umer Farooq

Military Force Becoming A Currency In The International System Again

Military Force Becoming A Currency In The International System Again
06.02.2025 10

The Friday Times

Umer Farooq

Freedom Of Expression For What?

01.02.2025 10

The Friday Times

Umer Farooq

Freedom Of Express For What?

01.02.2025 5

The Friday Times

Umer Farooq

How Political Elites And Intellectuals Construct The Image Of Military As The Most Powerful?

22.01.2025 30

The Friday Times

Umer Farooq

Why Pakistanis Don't Take The Issues Of War And Peace Seriously?

15.01.2025 10

The Friday Times

Umer Farooq

The Lasting Influence Of Faiz Ahmed Faiz: Poetry, Ideals, And A Journey Through Life

I went to Lahore for studies, three years after Faiz Ahmed Faiz’s demise in 1983. The first book I bought was Faiz’s, “Nuskha-e-Hae-e-Wafa”....

06.01.2025 8

The Friday Times

Umer Farooq

The Popular Factor Can Disrupt The Delicate Balance On Which Pakistani State Is Standing

I have a fear, and this fear is not the fear of the unknown. It is fear of the known. I know that the Pakistani state is standing on a very narrow...

30.12.2024 3

The Friday Times

Umer Farooq

Self-Destruction Is In Our Systemic DNA

Pakistani society and the political forces within it will have to bury behind the trait of self-destruction, as the last sun of 2024 sets and as we...

28.12.2024 8

The Friday Times

Umer Farooq

Does Introduction Of AI Tools In Nuclear Architecture In SA Mean Strategic Instability?

The use of Artificial Intelligence in nuclear decision-making and targeting of the enemy’s nuclear assets is no longer merely a subject of science...

21.12.2024 7

The Friday Times

Umer Farooq

Space For Mistakes Is Short For The State Machinery

Between November 24 and 26, 2024, the government security forces, and Law enforcement agencies used firearms against PTI protests. There is now...

10.12.2024 8

The Friday Times

Umer Farooq

Wasting Imran Khan Would Be Foolish

I am of the firm and considered the opinion that we should not let Imran Khan and his popularity among the common people of Pakistan go waste....

06.12.2024 5

The Friday Times

Umer Farooq

Is It All Madness?

From 1986-1987, the Pakistani military and the political elites were in a kind of ecstasy about the nuclear deterrence they had acquired because of...

28.11.2024 4

The Friday Times

Umer Farooq

Is The State Evil?

For decades, I have flirted with the idea that the state is an evil — an exploitation machine which acts as a tool in the hands of the dominant...

22.11.2024 3

The Friday Times

Umer Farooq

Resource dilemma

PAKISTAN has turned to two US law firms to fend off Tehran’s penalty claim over the delayed gas pipeline project with Iran. Does this sound...

21.11.2024 3

Dawn

Umer Farooq

The West Has A New Darling - India

After reading the military's press release on the Australian Army Chief's visit, I was struck by a singular thought that there is a strong chance...

12.11.2024 5

The Friday Times

Umer Farooq

Alienating Popular Leaders Could Be Dangerous

Historically speaking, the centres of political power always leave a deep imprint on the culture of the society it presides over. The government,...

08.11.2024 4

The Friday Times

Umer Farooq

With Elite Protection A Norm, Pakistan Is Destined For Revolution Or Anarchy

What is common between Khadija Shah — who was accused of participating in the vandalism that was witnessed on May 9, 2023 — Intezar Hussain...

05.11.2024 3

The Friday Times

Umer Farooq

Under War Clouds: Iran’s Cultural Legacy At Risk

When I read " Reading Lolita in Tehran " — a marvellous book by Azar Nafisi, an Iranian author—in 2019, It reconfirmed my belief that a deep...

27.10.2024 2

The Friday Times

Umer Farooq

SCO And Realising The Dream Of Pakistan As A Regional Connectivity Hub

The stiff-necked Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar's short trip to Islamabad did not raise any expectations about the resumption of the...

24.10.2024 3

The Friday Times

Umer Farooq

Lessons From China: Muslim World’s Misguided Response to Western Dominance

The assassinations of one resistance leader in Lebanon and Gaza after another by Israeli intelligence and military indicate one uncomfortable...

21.10.2024 2

The Friday Times

Umer Farooq

Nawaz Sharif's Pious Wish

I was there when, in the first week of October 1993—a few days before parliamentary elections— Nawaz Sharif told a jam-packed Liaquat Bagh that...

16.10.2024 3

The Friday Times

Umer Farooq

The Killing Fields Of Gaza: A Turning Point In History

The killing fields of Gaza are a turning point in history. The first two decades of the 21st century witnessed two major wars. In the US invasion...

13.10.2024 3

The Friday Times

Umer Farooq

Nuclear Taboo And War Winds From The West

In February 2023, the US-based think-tank Nonproliferation Policy Education Center organised a war game to explore the possibility of a conflict...

05.10.2024 3

The Friday Times

Umer Farooq

Hyping Golden Road: Western Media's Push For Indian Civilisational Superiority Over China

Sometime at the start of this month, Western media and its tributaries in the global and social media started praising and publicising in one voice...

26.09.2024 3

The Friday Times

Umer Farooq

Will Indian Technology Make Pakistan's Nuclear Deterrent Redundant?

In the past two months, Pakistani think-tank, the Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad (ISSI) —a subsidiary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,...

22.09.2024 2

The Friday Times

Umer Farooq

Democracy In Pakistan And Legitimacy Of The Political System

The social and political base of Pakistan's political system is very narrow. Besides, the fortunes of our political system have not been on the...

15.09.2024 2

The Friday Times

Umer Farooq

Imran Khan: Please Stop Hallucinating

Imagine Vladamir Lenin being approached by the Russian Tsar's intelligence chief, asking him to postpone his revolutionary activities for a day or...

11.09.2024 3

The Friday Times

Umer Farooq

History, Climate Change And Future Of Pakistani Military

American diplomatic historian McMahon recalls that in 1954, the then-Finance Minister Chaudhry Muhammad Ali (who later served as Pakistan's Prime...

09.09.2024 3

The Friday Times

Umer Farooq

Balochistan’s riches

IN these times, when the protesters of the Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC) are demanding fundamental rights in Balochistan, it may appear...

07.09.2024 4

Dawn

Umer Farooq

Pakistan-India: Shifting Tides In Maritime Security

For the past decade and a half, Pakistan's military planners and foreign policy strategists have thought about and planned for two developments in...

06.09.2024 3

The Friday Times

Umer Farooq

Abort Mission: Why Pakistan's Military Needs To Get Out Of Politics

How much of the Pakistan military’s current political quandary, and the bad press they are getting in the status quo, is a result of the...

26.08.2024 3

The Friday Times

Umer Farooq

Labelling The TTP 'Kharijites'

In a new development Pakistani military has started dubbing the fighters and militants of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) Khwarij, in...

20.08.2024 3

The Friday Times

Umer Farooq

Burying Bonaparte In Pakistan

Lieutenant General (R) Faiz Hameed is a typical character in Pakistan’s political history. There is nothing unique or exceptional about him; he...

15.08.2024 10

The Friday Times

Umer Farooq

Did We Just Witness A Military Coup In Bangladesh?

Bangladesh today is the archetype of a Muslim, South Asian, post-colonial state. Mass protest has been followed by a military intervention; this...

06.08.2024 5

The Friday Times

Umer Farooq

Pakistan’s Military Needs To Extricate Itself From Political Power Struggles

Imran Khan is now engaging in the same opportunistic sloganeering, along the old theme of, “I am criticizing the individuals (read Army Chief) and...

05.08.2024 1

The Friday Times

Umer Farooq

Pakistan Is A Victim Of War, Not A Perpetrator

India’s government leaders were visibly perturbed when, on February 27, 2019, the Pakistan Air Force managed to shoot down the IAF’s MiG-21 that...

03.08.2024 3

The Friday Times

Umer Farooq

Pakistan Is On The Wrong Side Of History

Someone from the PTI recently declared that Nawaz Sharif was on the wrong side of history. That is not entirely incorrect. But Sharif is not alone....

30.07.2024 1

The Friday Times

Umer Farooq

Pakistan's Political System Is At A Dead End

There are three actors in Pakistan’s political arena which can make things happen. The first is the military, which along with the intelligence...

24.07.2024 4

The Friday Times

Umer Farooq

Pakistan's Centrifugal Politics Threaten Its Viability

Pakistani society has just emerged out of a civil war like situation, amidst the increasingly divisive nature of its political and social life. In...

18.07.2024 10

The Friday Times

Umer Farooq