By Naveed Qazi | Editor, Globe Upfront G ulbuddin Hekmatyar  returned to Afghanistan in April 2017 after an exile of 20 years. Mysteriously underground and presumably hiding in the rugged mountainous terrain of Pakistan, his return marked countless prior negotiations on his role in civil life, his rights and privileges. He has been nicknamed as “ the butcher of Kabul” after killing thousands of people between 1992 to 1996 with rockets and artillery in the civil war. He also served as Afghanistan’s prime minister, an office he held for a brief period. With a sense of political opportunism, he now vows for reconciliation with the Taliban through dialogue. Atleast 200 people welcomed him in the eastern Laghman province of Afghanistan, where he had been conducting meetings with his former party members lately. Common Afghans had mixed feelings about his return as posters of him and his party were seen torn on the streets. Hekmatyar, a former anti-Soviet commander in ...

Source: Google By Naveed Qazi | Editor, Globe Up Front B razil has been witnessing upheavals since 2015.  A round 35,000 people have marched the capital and other cities in May 2017. Angry demonstrators have set fire to several ministerial buildings in Brasilia.  Commuter buses have been burned. Communist sickle and hammers have been sprayed on the walls. Graffiti’s called for “ Death to the Bourgeois”. To quell upcoming protests, there has been a heavy police presence on the streets. Rubber bullets have been fired. There also has been an investigation surrounding usage of live ammunition on protestors. At the present moment, people are demanding the resignation of President Temer, fresh elections and economic plans set by the current regime to be withdrawn. Unions of key sectors, political parties and activists stand as one people to bring a change in their country. General strikes have been called. Proposals to bring changes to labour laws and pension syste...

Photo Source: Time By Naveed Qazi | Editor, Globe Upfront A fter Rouhani won his second presidential term in Iran, in May 2017, hardline conservatives have once against targeted him.  His rivals have accused him of winning on voter fraud.  After taking 58.6 percent of the 40 million vote, core political issues in Iran are once again back in the limelight. The elections have come at a time when the neighbouring Arab region is in turmoil. Rouhani had mostly targeted the middle-class vote in his campaign and that had resulted to be a right strategy for him. His election also proves a setback for Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, who control vast industrial zones in Iran. They had banked their support to his controversial conservative rival, Ebrahim Raisi, involved in the death of 30,000 political prisoners in the 1988 Iranian massacre. Rouhani had won because of collective anger in large cities, particularly because of urbanites for anti-Rouhani stance ...

By Naveed Qazi | Globe Upfront Poland has been volatile because its citizens believe that their freedoms are at risk.  In December 2016, thousands of Poles had marched the streets of Warsaw to register their protests against constitutional amendments. People have chanted slogans like “Free European Poland! ” and “ Poland is here! ” Some had sealed their lips with tape, suggesting that freedom of speech was threatened.  Supporters of Civic Platform Party (PO) and Committee for the Defense of Democracy, a social organisation, had called for a ‘Freedom March’ in which protestors carried Polish and EU flags, aiming to show the resentment that Poles in general have developed against the ruling Law and Justice Party (PiS) and their authoritarian leaders. They  fear that the attitude of current government would oust them out of the European Union and NATO membership for their lack of respect for political rights and democracy. The estimate of attendance had b...