About the Author

Shahid R. Siddiqi

Shahid R. Siddiqi began his career in the Pakistan Air Force. He later joined the corporate sector with which he remained associated until recently in a senior management position. Alongside, he worked as a broadcaster with Radio Pakistan and remained the Islamabad bureau chief of an English weekly magazine ‘Pakistan & Gulf Economist’. In the U.S. he co-founded the Asian American Republican Club in Maryland in 1994 to encourage the participation of Asian Americans in the mainstream political process. He now writes columns and can be reached at shahidrsiddiqi@gmail.com.

Did Benazir Die for Democracy?

Posted by | Jan 23, 2009 | , |

South Asians are sentimental people. Over the centuries, their romanticism about revered historical and religious icons has shaped their political psyche of nurturing personality cults. To this add their ignorance about political realities due to pervasive illiteracy and you will know the reason behind the meteoric rise to power of charismatic leaders in recent history.

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Pakistan’s Balkanization

Posted by | Dec 12, 2008 | , , |

Re-mapping of the Muslim world is under the spotlight in the US and Pakistan’s balkanization forms a part of this agenda. American strategists are propagating the need to redraw its borders along ethnic lines by creating new political entities in the name of justice long denied to “oppressed Muslim minorities”. “Internal factors” are to be created and used, which they believe could lead to desired fragmentation. That this also reflects the mindset of the US administration can be seen by its efforts and actions to engineer grounds for military intervention, regime-change, or fragmentation in target countries.

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