Mustafa Qadri

After a decade-long hunt, Osama bin Laden has been killed. But the grievances and poverty that give rise to terrorism remain, writes Middle East correspondent Mustafa Qadri No individual has influenced the course of US military strategy more over the last 10 years than Osama bin Laden. In an age of increasingly narrow ideologies, Osama has been [...]

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Today I was interviewed by Phillip Adams on Radio National Australia about Pakistan’s changing relationship with the Taliban. You can listen and download the interview here.

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The proposed truth and reconciliation commission is a fine idea. But a lack of historical distance will make it politically thorny

Grievance is at the heart of Pakistani politics. Almost all of the elites that dominate political life here have faced the deprivations – poverty, harassment, imprisonment or exile – experienced by the ordinary citizen at some point in their lives. When at the height of their strength, the powerful always invoke the myriad injustices that plague the common citizen to rally popular support.

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The Karachi king

After a bloody conflict in Karachi, much-feared political boss Altaf Hussain fled to London, but he is no less powerful in Pakistan

o Mustafa Qadri
o guardian.co.uk, Monday 6 July 2009 18.00 BST
o Article history

With his healthy plume of gravity-defying hair and chunky tinted glasses, Altaf Hussain is as colourful in appearance as his reputation suggests. Perhaps no other Pakistani politician has as big a list of enemies as the one-time cabbie and university student who transformed himself into one of the most feared political bosses in the country. That he has directed his Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) party from the distant shores of the UK since 1994 speaks volumes for his enduring influence in the treacherous political life of Pakistan.

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Loewenstein delves into the ‘Blogging Revolution’

Reviewed by Mustafa Qadri

Hot on the heels of his last book, My Israel Question (a history of the Israeli occupation of Palestine from the perspective of an anti-Zionist Jewish Australian), freelance journalist Antony Loewenstein delves into the ‘Blogging Revolution’ with a book of the same title.

The greatest virtue of this book is that it is written not from the distant comforts of the West but on the ground in six fascinating and misunderstood countries. In Iran, Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Cuba and China, the reader is taken on a journey through the lives of a variety of people, including but not limited to activists, seeking to engage their society in a social debate on a range of topics from sex to religion and popular culture.

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Prince Naif is viewed as a conservative. Only days ago he told reporters he saw no need for women to serve in the shoura council, the consultative assembly, or for its mem­bers to be elected, as recommended by a human rights group report last week. His ministry has also been the target of accusations of [...]

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U.S. President Barack Obama has taken the Middle East by surprise with the speed of his diplomacy but his first statement on the conflict between Arabs and Israelis was strikingly similar to old U.S. policies.

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President George W. Bush said on Wednesday he is leaving to his successor a stronger anti-terrorism partnership with Pakistan and Saudi Arabia forged in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks.

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Saudi Arabia has confirmed for the first time that it’s been sponsoring talks between the Afghan government and Taliban insurgents. “We will not negotiate with terrorists but we do believe in political engagement. We are a political government and we believe in talking to the people who are willing to reconcile.”

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