Mustafa Qadri

Pervez Musharraf’s talk of ‘tacit approval’ reminds us of the trail linking distant torture chambers to the heart of our governments Mustafa Qadri, guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 15 March 2011 12.52 GMT The admission by Pervez Musharraf, the former Pakistan president, of British complicity in torture on BBC2′s The Secret War on Terror should not surprise anyone. What [...]

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SECURITY | SOUTH ASIA | PAKISTAN August 9, 2010By Mustafa Qadri The WikiLeaks files won’t destroy ties between the two. The US decision to withdraw from Afghanistan has made sure of that. At first glance it appeared that the smoking gun had finally been found. That was certainly the initial impression when, on July 25, Internet whistleblower site [...]

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Cameron’s comments stoke a dangerous perception in Pakistan that its efforts in the war against the Taliban have been ignored Mustafa Qadri, guardian.co.uk, Thursday 29 July 2010 18.15 BST News of Cameron’s visit may have been sidelined by Pakistan’s worst-ever air disaster. Yet his speech in Bangalore, India, has fast become infamous here. It isn’t [...]

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As Pakistan celebrates Independence Day, Mustafa Qadri looks at the country’s unstable beginnings, troubled history and the miracle of its continued existence

“The religious bigot considers me an infidel
And the infidel deems me to be a Muslim!”

With these immortal words, Pakistan’s national poet Mohammad Iqbal captured the eternal quandary that is Pakistan.

The nation created for the subcontinent’s Muslims has always struggle to define itself — is it meant to be an Islamic state or a state for Indian Muslims?

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All Eyes On Iran

The fallout from its controversial presidential election has left Iran in a similar position to that faced by Iraq in the lead-up to the US-led invasion, writes Mustafa Qadri

At no point in recent memory has the Islamic Republic of Iran dominated headlines as it has these past four weeks. Virtually all Western governments and mainstream commentators have rushed to condemn the Iranian Government’s violent crackdown on opposition protesters.

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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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Did Ahmadinejad Steal The Election?

Five days after the election, Iran is still in the grip of massive protests. Now the offer of a partial recount isn’t going to put the genie back in the bottle, writes Mustafa Qadri

Did Ahmadinejad steal the election? That is the question being asked by so many in Iran and around the world.

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Mustafa Qadri: History Repeats Itself In Pakistan

Guardian: Comment Is Free

By invoking a Raj-era law against public protest, the government demonstrates its inability to handle the country’s real problems…

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Britain aligned itself with the U.S. position on Hezbollah, but has now seen its error. Bill Marston, a Foreign Office spokesman, told Al Jazeera: “Hezbollah is a political phenomenon and part and parcel of the national fabric in Lebanon. We have to admit this.”

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My latest article, on the peace deal between a pro-Taliban group and the Pakistan Government in the mountainous tribal area of Malakand was published in NewMatilda.com today: WHAT WILL THIS ‘PEACE’ COST? By Mustafa Qadri Pakistan has agreed to entrench Sharia law in its North-West Frontier Province in exchange for peace, but locals are still [...]

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Britain appointed its own Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan and named Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles, currently its Ambassador to Afghanistan, for the post on the day US President Obama’s Special Representative for the two countries arrived in Islamabad. You may recall that Cowper-Coles was the British diplomat who got into a bit of hot water [...]

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But in its ruling, the Tribunal said: “We have decided that the public interest in maintaining the confidentiality of the formal minutes of two Cabinet meetings at which ministers decided to commit forces to military action in Iraq did not… outweigh the public interest in disclosure.” The Tribunal said its decision to rule in such [...]

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