SMOKERS’ CORNER: IN CASE OF EMERGENCY

Last week, the government of Pakistan imposed emergency rule and governor’s rule in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP). The Pashtun-majority province, which shares a long border with Afghanistan, has been deeply shaped by events across the frontier. KP’s instability escalated during the 1980s, when Gen Ziaul Haq’s dictatorship, backed by American and Saudi funding, transformed Pakistan into a launching pad for anti-Soviet Afghan Islamist insurgents. After the Soviet withdrawal in 1988, Pakistan aligned with the Afghan Taliban (TTA), who took power in Kabul in 1996. Even after the US forces ousted the…