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May 02, 2024
 

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Farhan Bokhari
For Farhan Bokhari's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
COMMENTARY / World
May 26, 2001
Afghans' prospects grow worse by the day
KABUL -- Surrounded by squalor, 9-year-old Naim Gul raises his hand to beg for a cheap pen.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 23, 2001
Musharraf sets his sights on illegal guns
ISLAMABAD -- Stemming the flow of thousands of illegal weapons throughout Pakistan is not an easy task, but the government of Gen. Pervez Musharraf has promised this month to do just that with its launch of an aggressive cleanup campaign.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 15, 2001
Shared interests bolster Sino-Pakistani ties
ISLAMABAD -- As the United States and China were trying to resolve their standoff over the downing of a Chinese plane and the subsequent landing of a U.S. surveillance aircraft on Hainan Island, Pakistan was preparing to welcome Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 2, 2001
Hope: Afghanistan's scarcest resource
JALLOZAI, Pakistan -- With the release last week of photos confirming the destruction of the giant Buddha statues of Bamiyan, Afghanistan's Taliban leaders lost their last remote hope for a reconciliation with the world over the act.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 24, 2001
Detours on Pakistan's road to democracy
ISLAMABAD -- Leaders of some of Pakistan's opposition parties took no time in boycotting a live broadcast on national television this week upon news of a crackdown on prodemocracy activists.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 10, 2001
Taliban's defiance isolates Afghanistan
ISLAMABAD -- As if the destruction of some key human values were not enough to satisfy the blind zeal of Afghanistan's Taliban rulers, they have now turned their guns on historical relics.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 24, 2001
Nuclear Pakistan and the new Bush team
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Less than three years after Pakistan detonated its first nuclear device, a new Republican administration has taken over in Washington.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 12, 2001
Hints of thaw in Indo-Pakistani relations
ISLAMABAD -- When Pakistani military ruler Gen. Pervez Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee spoke on the phone for a few minutes after the devastating earthquake that hit parts of India recently, many observers were relieved.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 31, 2001
What will sanctions do to Afghanistan?
ISLAMABAD -- A news release from the U.S. State Department explaining the possible consequences of this month's U.N. Security Council sanctions against Afghanistan was mainly concerned to set the record straight.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 22, 2001
The clock is ticking for Gen. Musharraf
ISLAMABAD -- Gen. Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's military ruler, has vowed to give Pakistanis a new life through the establishment a new political order. This promise will be put to test in the next few months.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 8, 2001
Signs of hope emerge in South Asia
ISLAMABAD -- When representatives of some of the most prominent groups in Indian-administered Kashmir visit Pakistan toward the middle of this month, many South Asia watchers will be looking for signs of progress in South Asia's latest peace process.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 18, 2000
Sharif deal puts pressure on Musharraf
ISLAMABAD -- Pakistanis were taken aback last week when they unexpectedly heard that former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, in military custody since the country's bloodless coup last year, suddenly left the country for exile in Saudi Arabia.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 19, 2000
Lessons for peace from a double failure
ISLAMABAD -- A recent two-week lull in the fighting in Kashmir has momentarily aroused hope that South Asia's two bitter, nuclear-armed neighbors, India and Pakistan, might be facing a window of opportunity in the struggle to overcome 53 years of animosity. For much of the outside world, concerned over the danger of a possible Indo-Pakistani nuclear exchange, any signs of a rapprochement between the two countries must be good news.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 26, 2000
Testing times for Sino-Pakistani friendship
ISLAMABAD -- There was a familiar ring to recent allegations in U.S. newspapers, reportedly based on intelligence sources, that China is continuing to aid Pakistan's plans to build long-range nuclear-capable missiles. It is not the first time such allegations have surfaced in the United States, especially in the midst of a presidential electoral race, when passions run high and U.S. China policy is hotly debated.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 8, 2000
Pakistan: managing a nuclear economy
ISLAMABAD -- Pakistan's military leader, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, who remains under U.S.-led Western pressure to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, also faces another challenge: that of reforming his country's battered economy.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 19, 2000
Security stakes growing in South Asia
ISLAMABAD -- Despite a push by the international community, there's little prospect that India and Pakistan will sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 4, 2000
Pakistani Islamists put a lid on reform
ISLAMABAD -- There are still no signs of religious activists taking to the streets across Pakistan, but the country is once again in the grips of a new controversy over religious tenets and their application in daily life.
COMMENTARY / World
May 22, 2000
Opportunity amid South Asia's troubles
ISLAMABAD -- While press photographers scrambled inside a hospital in Delhi recently to catch a glimpse of baby Astha, India's 1 billionth citizen, in other parts of India officials continued to battle this year's drought, which has been drying up water supplies and causing crop losses. Just last month, relief workers estimated that an estimated 50 million Indians may fall victim to the drought.
COMMENTARY / World
May 17, 2000
Pakistan peace initiative just a first step
ISLAMABAD -- The empty trailers along the road from the Afghan capital of Kabul to the border with neighboring Pakistan serve as powerful reminders of what Afghanistan's Islamic rulers -- the Taliban -- have achieved in the four years since they took control of most of their Central Asian country's territory.
COMMENTARY / World
May 8, 2000
Tackling sectarian strife in Pakistan
ISLAMABAD -- A volley of gunfire that followed a grenade attack last month in a small village two hours from Islamabad shattered the myth that the government had begun to effectively contain the country's religious extremists.
'So hot you can't breathe': Extreme heat hits the Philippines
A pedestrian cools himself with a folding hand fan as he waits for a ride along a road in Manila on Wednesday, as extreme heat hit the Philippines.
Did Japan intervene to prop up the yen? Analysts think it did.
A man walks past an electronic board displaying the exchange rate for the yen against the U.S. dollar (right) in Tokyo on Tuesday.
Town to block view of Mount Fuji in response to overtourism
The town government of Fujikawaguchiko, Yamanashi Prefecture, decided to set up a 2.5-meter-high screen to prevent tourists from taking pictures of Mount Fuji looming behind a convenience store.
A peek inside the brains of ‘super-agers’
For a little more than a decade, scientists have been studying a subset of people they call "super-agers.” These individuals are age 80 and older, but they have the memory ability of a person 20 to 30 years younger.
Yellow sand allergy: A health issue made worse by climate change
A screenshot of the Meteorological Agency's satellite image of clouds and yellow sand (in pink) on Sunday.
Yellow sand allergy: A health issue made worse by climate change
A screenshot of the Meteorological Agency's satellite image of clouds and yellow sand (in pink) on Sunday.
Climate change, chalky grains and the risks for Japan’s rice farmers
A farmer plants seedlings in Satsumasendai, Kagoshima Prefecture. Japan’s self sufficiency rate for rice is nearly 100%, compared with 38% for food overall, on a calorie basis.
Japan wants you to spend more with ‘luxury tourism’
Performers play a traditional drum unique to Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, in the prefectural capital of Kanazawa on March 16 to mark the extension of the Hokuriku Shinkansen line to Tsuruga Station in Fukui Prefecture.
Theaster Gates’ ambitious ‘Afro-Mingei’ brings Black Chicago to Tokyo
Theaster Gates' “A Heavenly Chord” lines up church pews before seven speakers and a Hammond B3 organ, a type of electric organ prevalent in Black American churches.
Casa del Cibo: A thriving jewel born from Tohoku’s harsh past
When chef Ryohei Ikemi moved to Hachinohe, Aomori Prefecture, and opened Casa del Cibo in 2011, it was the first proper Italian restaurant in the city.

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