Displaced by Nature

If you haven’t been following the news on the Hunza Valley landslide and the potential floods from the lake in Attabad, this photo from the Boston Globe’s Big Picture series may inspire you to learn more: The caption on the Globe reads, “A girl cries while sitting with others to protest against the government’s failure [...]

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Abbotabad Riots – In the Name of a Name

Below is my piece that first appeared in Foreign Policy‘s AfPak Channel, a continuation on my previous post that delves more into the party politics that often clouds what the real issues are or should be: As the 18th Amendment, the constitutional reforms package designed to bolster parliamentary democracy in Pakistan, inches closer to becoming [...]

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Insight into Pakistan’s Conflict: Q&A with Khalid Aziz

Image Credit: WWICS This past week, tensions within Pakistan escalated after Taliban militants consolidated power in Buner, just 70 miles from the capital of Islamabad. Although these elements began to withdraw from the area last Friday, the developments raised fears within the country and the international community about the increasing influence of the Taliban in [...]

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PBS Wide Angle Film: “You Cannot Hide From Allah”

PBS Wide Angle [an Emmy Award-winning international affairs documentary series] recently posted some online-exclusive documentary shorts, part of a series entitled, “Pakistan at the Polls,” how shadow forces are shaping political outcomes in rural Pakistan. One of the shorts in particular caught my eye and raised some thought-provoking questions. Called, “You Cannot Hide From Allah,” [...]

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Some Good Links…

The NY Times.com featured a really fantastic and powerful short documentary on the issue of female education in Swat Valley. The Times’ Adam Ellick and Irfan Ashraf profiled a Pakistani girl on the last day before the Taliban shut down her school, [click on the image below to watch the video]. At one point in [...]

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An Expeditionist’s Perspective on Pakistan – An Interview with RiverIndia’s Roland Stevenson

CHUP interviewed Roland Stevenson, owner of RiverIndia, a company that leads kayaking expeditions in India and throughout South Asia. In November 2008, Roland led a team on an expedition in Pakistan, to tackle the Indus River. Below, he tells us about their experience: Q: You currently lead expeditions for River India, what motivated you to [...]

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Three Days, Three Incidents of Violence in Peshawar

On Thursday, media outlets reported that an Iranian diplomat was kidnapped in Peshawar one day after a U.S. aid worker was killed and two days after a suicide bombing at a sports stadium in the city. According to news agencies, at least four gunmen abducted the man, identified as Heshmatollah Attarzadeh, [the embassy's commercial attache [...]

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Pakistan’s Female Pop Duo: Zeb and Haniya

A friend passed on a YouTube clip of Pakistan’s rising female pop duo, Zeb & Haniya, or Zeb Bangash and Haniya Aslam. The cousins released their debut album, entitled Chup, on July 19th nationwide. The music video for the song, Aitebar, meaning ‘Trust’ in Urdu, also began airing this past Saturday, [see clip below]. This [...]

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