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Express Tribune
06-07-2025
- Politics
- Express Tribune
Book review: Pakistan's secret history, through a spy's eyes
Published by Pen & Sword Military, Caught in the Crossfire: The Inside Story of Pakistan's Secret Services, begins with the author recounting a dramatic story from 1982, featuring former president General Zia Ul Haq. The incident perfectly encapsulates how Brigadier Naseem Akhtar Khan often found himself on the front lines of some of the most pivotal moments of the twentieth century. He also recounted another president, Pervez Musharraf, as a close friend and mentor. Imagine spending nearly thirty years as an invisible warrior for your country, constantly slipping into enemy territory to gather vital secrets, dodging bullets, and outsmarting those who want to harm your nation. This is essentially what you'll find in Brigadier Khan's book. It is the author's personal journey through decades of high-stakes counterintelligence. If you think this is just a dry history lesson, you are wrong. All those intense details have been woven into a really absorbing look at South Asian military history, especially focusing on the security challenges Pakistan has faced since it came into existence. The author firmly believes that a lot of what's said about international strategies in the region is actually made-up information spread by Pakistan's enemies to hurt its interests. That was his basic inspiration when he decided to write this book, using his own experiences as a reliable guide for anyone trying to understand the past, and predict what might happen next. At its heart, the book is about how he sees the power plays happening in South Asia between both regional and global players. Brig Khan thinks it'll be incredibly helpful for readers to get a more realistic grasp of our constantly changing world order. There are a multitude of thrilling stories in the book, worthy of any Hollywood blockbuster, and it shouldn't be surprising, given how the backdrop of Brig Khan's life easily lends itself to such high-stake action. From the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan to 9/11 and through conflicts against neighbouring India, the former intelligence and military officer got a first-hand view of history unfolding in real time in his 23-year career in ISI. Brig Khan's story is like something out of fiction. The dashing soldier came from relatively humble beginnings in Kashmir, a warm family and proud ancestry fueling his own ambitions to 'Touch the sky', as he and his sister would cry as they played as children. There are several unexpected turning points in his life. The first one put him on a high achieving academic path that lead to the Pakistan Military Academy. His military career took off in the Army in 1969, but when he was asked to report for ISI, he worried this might spike his rise up the regular ranks. Yet there was another unprecedented opportunity, in 1979, when the Soviets went into Afghanistan, and the support Pakistan was able to provide proved instrumental to CIA efforts to undermine their Cold War rivals. The Brigadier would also see first-hand how Pakistan was betrayed by its allies in the aftermath of the fall of the Soviet Union. After 9/11, Pakistan was coerced by the US into supporting its own invasion of Afghanistan and this led to its own wave of terrorism. It is these difficult times in his country's history where Brig Khan's vantage point and analysis are most instructive for events that unfolded in 2025, including how domestic politics continues to undermine national interests, while the US is underestimating their need for the country, as it elevates India to counter China. The turbulent times Brig Khan navigated as a patriot and one of Pakistan's invisible warriors has helped him to acquire such important perspectives, so that in his retirement and in private-sector security work, he has now been able to share them in this fine book. Despite first and foremost being primarily a family man, Khan nevertheless put his life on the line for his nation several times. Regardless of the personal risks, his priority would be to protect Pakistan's interests. Loyalty features large in his story, yet it is ironic that outsiders might feel loyalty has no place in the spy game. He is unsparing in his assessment of the problems caused by the interplay between Pakistan's politicians and the army in civilian governance matters, leading to the failure, and painful loss of East Pakistan. Khan's book also serves as a concise history of Pakistan and he is able to deftly explain to readers who might not be aware, how an elite group of 22 families, accumulated such wealth and gained political power at the start of its journey, and that this ruling class influences its future even today. What Brig Khan delivers to the reader is a memoir packed with his real-life experiences, all told in a way that makes sense. He really dives into the people, groups, and the organisations that shaped his life, trying to pull you into his world so you can truly understand what it's like to be a Pakistani soldier. Mustafa Alrawi is a leading journalist and Group Director Editorial Partnerships at IMI Media, Abu Dhabi, UAE All facts and information are the sole responsibility of the writer
Express Tribune
03-06-2025
- Health
- Express Tribune
Climate Action Board Bill approved
Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government has approved the "Climate Action Board (CAB) Bill 2025." Advisor to the Chief Minister on Information and Public Relations, Barrister Dr Saif, stated that the bill would provide a comprehensive and effective framework to tackle climate change across province. He said that the CAB will be an autonomous financial body, responsible for monitoring and coordinating environmental strategies across all government departments. The board will also be tasked with developing and revising environmental policies, conducting research, assessing performance, and ensuring effective implementation. Furthermore, it will have the authority to collaborate with international organizations, environmental experts, and the private sector to address environmental challenges. Saif added that a special "Climate Action Fund" would be established under the board to financially support environmental projects and encourage eco-friendly initiatives at the local level. He emphasized that the initiative marked the second major environmental project by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government, following the success of the Billion Tree Tsunami Project, and aimed to mitigate the risks of climate change while promoting sustainable development. Menstrual Health and Hygiene Day 2025 The Khyber Medical University (KMU), Peshawar in collaboration with Menstrual Health Management (MHM) Working Group Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, WaterAid, UNICEF, and other sector partners, organized a high-level event at KMU's Alexander Fleming Hall. The event held under the global theme "Together for a "Period Friendly World," the event brought together health professionals, representatives from academic and research institutions, development partners, and youth. KMU Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Zia Ul Haq graced the occasion as the chief guest and reaffirmed the collective commitment to ending menstrual taboos and promoting dignified menstrual health. More input from APP
Express Tribune
03-04-2025
- Politics
- Express Tribune
More on India's grand design
Listen to article (Continued) The cat and mouse game which began in Kashmir in 1965 travelled all the way to East Pakistan was now taking a full circle back to Kashmir. In 1984 India exercised its largest ever wargames on the Pakistani borders with wholesale deployment of its army with a potential to turn into an actual invasion. Only some suave diplomacy by Zia Ul Haq checkmated anything insidious in the plan. He flew into India ostensibly to watch an ongoing Cricket match where he remarked to Rajiv Gandhi, 'playing cricket than warring between two nuclear neighbours' was a far better option. I paraphrase. Pakistan till then was only suspected to have a 'Bomb' in the basement. The two decided to begin a 'Composite Dialogue' seeking sustainable peace. The Dialogue began in 1987 and continued intermittently under Nawaz Sharif, Musharraf, Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh in their respective turns at the helm. When it seemed that India and Pakistan had finally matured to the point of peaceful coexistence - draft proposals were doing the rounds in Delhi and Islamabad on low-hanging fruits, Siachen and Sir Creek - despite Kargil et al in the baggage, another made-for-TV drama played itself out to Live audiences across the world. Mumbai 2008 struck as a bolt from a clear blue sky. Jury is out on who enacted it and why? Even if the players on the stage were purportedly from Pakistan, who used them and how remains moot. But they served a grand purpose in the Indian design. All contact with Pakistan was ceased by India; Composite Dialogue which seemed to be reluctantly moving forward was shelved and terrorism was reinforced as the currency in play in matters between the two countries. The damage to peace process was permanent which India would use to great effect. This one had been difficult to break out of. In an earlier incident when Indian Parliament was attacked - soon after 9/11 in the same year - Musharraf had foiled inherent pressure around Pakistani groups alleged to have been behind the attack by declaring a unilateral ceasefire on the LOC with a promise that Pakistan will not permit its soil for use in cross-LOC violations in Kashmir. The admission by Pakistani leadership was India's first victory in another kind of war from the new age. Sadly, another dastardly event of butchering nearly 150 people, including 132 young children, in Peshawar in 2014 by terrorists sourced from Afghanistan reincarnated 16/12 - the date Pakistan lost its eastern wing - in its most debased reflection of human perversity. Sadly too, the event was celebrated by some in India. The linkages are obvious. Several terror events followed in India and Kashmir which were pinned on Pakistan with impunity. Uri, Pathankot, Gurdaspur, Surgical Strikes, Pulwama and Balakot were meant to reinforce the notion that Pakistan was behind each of those. Pakistan contested those as false flag and sponsored events meant to malign Pakistan and create space for India's nefarious motives. It gave cause to India to induct more forces in the valley, tighten its noose around Kashmir through regressive oppression, and kill every effort to kindle the freedom struggle even if it now existed only in hearts under the overbearing presence of the Indian military. Kashmir lost its right to have a government — it was ruled directly from Delhi and denied rights ordained in the Indian Constitution. Alongside Muslims in India were castigated, lynched and murdered on minutest pretexts. The entire environment was thus loaded against Muslims and Muslim identity aimed at linking Pakistan perceptively to the muddle. The mayhem may have been contrived but it wasn't without method. Narendra Modi used the opportunity to further his own political cause. Despite the ceasefire on the LOC, Indian forces routinely violated the arrangement starting 2013 under fabricated pretexts. It helped reinforce the image of BJP and Modi as a more formidable alternate to a softer and kinder Manmohan Singh to address the need of the moment. Come 2019, Pulwama was enacted to give reason to Balakot which was followed by the shooting war between the two air forces resulting in the downing of Abhinandan. Abhinandan was paraded as a hero for walking out of a Pakistani jail having lost his dignity. Modi used the occasion to build his tough-guy image, earning him another electoral victory for a second term. The ultimate benefit that Modi derived from this entire script was to abrogate Kashmir's special status as a disputed territory in the Indian Constitution and the division of the state into three parts leaving the more contested Muslim-majority valley as a narrow, separate entity under huge presence of the Indian army. Pundits were brought back to Jammu to change demographics of this separately demarcated region and Ladakh was taken over by the Centre as a Union territory to saturate with military presence against the bogey of China. India thus diluted Kashmir, at least administratively and legally, and reduced the area of dispute which it now aims to flood with economic and tourist-related spur of activity with money and perpetual presence of Indian capital in mirror image of Pakistan's CPEC. If this isn't grand strategy, what is? Pakistan is fighting a rear-guard battle on Kashmir if that, its focus forced on KP and Balochistan instead. The Modi-Doval duo rewrote the script on Kashmir while Pakistan was engaged elsewhere. Today, Pakistan is struggling to keep Balochistan in control while fighting an intense upfront battle in KP against terror emanating from Afghanistan. Both are Indian supported, sponsored and funded. Of this there is ample proof. An active-duty Indian Naval Commander on an espionage mission in Balochistan sits in Pakistani jails as a proof of what Ajit Doval, the Indian RAW Chief, had declared in public and private as his and India's assault on Pakistan. Afghanistan once again acts as a convenient proxy and a staging post. Objectively, Kashmir is quieter, has a government apparently of its own, even if bifurcated, truncated, suppressed and possibly heavily monitored. Kashmiris keep getting killed at the hand of the Indian occupation forces but Modi government through its network promises to bring in the fruits of Indian economic progress to ameliorate their sense of deprivation and entice them to material gain. Resultantly, Kashmir as a dispute has taken a back seat internationally, its annexation now legal and politically formalised per Indian laws, while Pakistan remains engrossed with reenergised threats on its western border. It may be some time before Pakistan can bring Kashmir back front and center. And Modi is only in his eleventh year of ruling India. It is not without reason Doval continues to be his henchman on Pakistan. Are there lessons to learn? And derive — to apply and extricate from the bind that Pakistan has become? It is never too late to learn, even if from an enemy. What those might be? Next.
