Sunjeev Bery

Category: Pakistan

  • Pakistan Foreign Minister Mixes Criticism and Praise of US Foreign Policy

    The HKS Citizen (Harvard Kennedy School) October 26, 2010 By Sanjeev Bery Alternating between criticism and praise, Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi spoke about US-Pakistan relations at the Harvard Kennedy School on Monday, October 18th.  Qureshi was at HKS on the eve of a US-Pakistan strategic dialogue with senior US officials in Washington DC.…

  • “Pretend Secrecy” Shields the White House from a Drone Missile Debate

    The Huffington Post Posted: November 5, 2009 By Sanjeev Bery It is time to set aside the notion that U.S. drone missile attacks in Pakistan are some kind of secret. The pretense of secrecy has saved Obama Administration officials from having to publicly defend the military tactic. But when Pakistani college students, think tank scholars,…

  • The State Department is keeping track…

    The U.S. State Department is now tracking the number of emails received opposing U.S. drone missile attacks in Pakistan.  What will the final number be? 50?  500?  5000? After emailing the State Department to oppose drone missile attacks, I received the message below.  You may have as well.  This means that senior State Department officials…

  • US AID guards its turf in Pakistan

    Over at Informed Consent, Juan Cole writes: The [Kerry-Lugar Pakistan] aid bill is also controversial in Washington, where a US AID official has complained about the plan to funnel it through Pakistani contractors rather than through American ones. The Agency for International Development official maintained that Pakistani organizations cannot be monitored effectively by the US,…

  • Misreading “Anti-Americanism” in Pakistan

    The latest news on US-Pakistan relations shouldn’t surprise anyone. According to the Associated Press, former Pakistani dictator Pervez Musharraf used billions of dollars in US military aid for everything but the paymasters’ intended purpose: fighting Taliban militias. None of this news, however, is likely to generate much Pakistani sympathy for American taxpayers. What American officials…

  • Lack of Coverage on Transgendered Pakistanis Shows Bias in U.S. Media

    The Huffington Post Posted: August 19, 2009 03:44 PM By Sanjeev Bery It probably wasn’t the first time that someone had organized an Independence Day cricket match in Pakistan. But it almost certainly was the first time that such a match occurred between a team of professional cricket players and a team of transgendered Pakistanis.…

  • “We Apologize”

    A group of progressive Pakistani activists has published an important piece in Bangladesh’s Daily Star acknowledging and apologizing for Pakistan’s 1971 atrocities against the Bangladeshi people. The piece, We Apologize, was written by the members of Action for a Progressive Pakistan.

  • “Pakistanis Debate Their Future On Facebook”

    Sanjeev Bery, The Huffington Post, 05/18/09 As the Pakistani military rains fire down upon villagers and Taliban alike, Pakistanis and members of the diaspora are engaged in numerous online debates about the future of their country. In some cases, they are offering perspectives that the rest of us should listen to.

  • “Today we are all Pashtuns”

    “I learnt about a family who had to leave child with polio behind and take all the other healthier children with them. Similarly, there are people who left the elderly behind as they could not endure the travel.” The following piece landed in my inbox via the yahoo group for the Pakistani American Community of…

  • Failed State Fetish, Part II

    “The notion of Pakistan as a “failed state” has roots far deeper than the last few years; it was first deemed to have “failed” in the early 1960s, and this framework has dominated discussion of Pakistan in America from the days of the Cold War to the War on Terror.“ From Manan Ahmed‘s “Legends of…