Kamal Hyder

Kamal Hyder's picture
Kamal Hyder
Correspondent | Pakistan
Biography

Kamal Hyder, Al Jazeera's Pakistan correspondent, reports from across the country, regularly filing exclusive material from the troubled North West Frontier province, which has been the site of cross-border raids by US forces based in Afghanistan, and the scene of fighting between tribal factions and Pakistan security forces.

Kamal has also covered breaking news events in the country - from the first assassination attempt on Benazir Bhutto in Karachi and her later killing in Rawalpindi, to the ensuing political fall-out that led to Pervez Musharraf's resignation and the election of Bhutto's widower as president.

Latest posts by Kamal Hyder

By Kamal Hyder in Asia on November 30th, 2011
Pakistanis have staged anti-NATO protests across the country in recent days. [Photo: EPA]

The attack toook place in the dead of the night, and for more than two hours, American helicopters pounded a well-known and marked Pakistani post.

The Pakistani army frantically tried to convey to NATO, ISAF and the US high command in Afghanistan to stop the attack, but their pleas fell on deaf ears. By the time it was over, more than 24 soldiers lay dead, including officers, and over a dozen wounded.

The Pakistani post, known as Volcano, was where the two sides held their flag meetings.

By Kamal Hyder in Asia on November 6th, 2011
Photo by Al Jazeera

This year Pakistan was hit by yet another wave of floods and, once again, millions of people in the country's Sindh province saw a deluge the like of which they had not seen in living memory. The rains pounded the rich agricultural districts of the province and exposed the depth of the corruption that plagues this country. Many dubbed it as a man-made disaster rather than a natural one.

Despite the fact that there were ample warnings of an impending disaster, the authorities seemed ill-prepared to cope with the catastrophe. Entire villages were destroyed and people were forced to flee and seek refugee on the embankments of the roads where they used their quilts and cotton sheets to set up shelters.

Three months on, and despite the fact that some people have been rescued from the floods, thousands remain without adequate shelter.

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By Kamal Hyder in Asia on September 12th, 2011
The government appears to be complacent with poor preparations and meagre efforts to assist its people. [Reuters]

It pours and pours.

There has been no let-up in the torrents across the Badin district - a land that receives less than 60 mm of rain in a year has now seen over 300 mm in just of 48 hours.

But it was a crisis already in the making because of record rains in the country’s southern province of Sind which received an incredible 1,000 mm of rain in less than three weeks and the deluge still continues pounding several districts in the area.

The problem has been exacerbated because the Left Bank Overflow Drain or LBOD has not been working at its optimum. The drain, with a usual capacity to withstand up to 6,000 cusecs of water flow, and sends overflow to the Arabian Sea has been the victim of poor planning and design as well as excessive government corruption has had its capability reduced to around 4,000 cusecs.

By Kamal Hyder in Asia on July 10th, 2011
Police watch a deserted street in a violent-hit western neighbourhood. [AFP]

When Pakistan became an independent state in 1947, its first capital city was Karachi. It was the first port of call for international shipping in an age when aviation was used by few.

Over the years, it attracted both the educated elite and workers in search of employment. Many decided to make it their home. When Pakistan split from India, a great number of Muslims migrating to the new country came to Karachi for the same reason.  

The city soon became an epitome of unity. Muslims, Christians, Zoroastrians and Hindus intermingled and lived side by side. I remember, during my days in school, no one ever asked anyone who they were, and everyone took pride in the fact that they were all patriotic Pakistanis.  

Sadly, the past is another country.

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By Kamal Hyder in Asia on June 23rd, 2011
Photo by GALLO/GETTY

In less than a month’s time, US forces will begin pulling out of Afghanistan.

By Kamal Hyder in Asia on May 12th, 2011

Within years after Russian forces invaded Afghanistan in 1979, the US and Saudi Arabia sent in billions of dollars to help the mujahideen, or holy warriors, in their uphill struggle against Russian forces. As the battles for control of Afghanistan got under way, thousands of Arab and other foreign volunteers made a beeline for Pakistan to join the Afghan mujahideen and cross into Afghanistan to wage jihad against the brutal occupation of Afghanistan.

By Kamal Hyder in Asia on February 28th, 2011

 

Even at the best of times, Pakistan-US relations have been marred by mistrust.

Historically, the United States has gravitated towards Pakistan when it has needed to in terms of its strategic interests. In the late 1950’s, for example, the US not only supported a military dictator (General Ayub Khan)  but also operated airbases inside Pakistan to be used against the growing military power of the Russia. 

In 1962 a U2 long range reconnaissance aircraft took off from Badaber, on the outskirts of Peshawar, for a spying mission over Russia. The plane was due to fly all the way to Norway, but was shot down by the Russians, who then triumphantly put the pilot, Gary Powers, on display to the world.

By Kamal Hyder in Asia on February 10th, 2011

When the Taliban movement took off in the mid 1990’s they had no support from Osama Bin Laden or his outfit al-Qaeda.
The Taliban agenda was introverted and interested only in restoring security and stability within the confines of the Afghan frontiers.

However, al-Qaeda’s agenda was more regional or perhaps even global.

Many Arab Mujahideen, or Holy Warriors as they were known by the US, came from far away lands in North Africa, including Algeria, Morocco, Libya and even Egypt.

The Afghan war provided a window of opportunity for the despotic Arab regimes to send their trouble-makers to fight a war in a distant land, and please Washington in supplying the fighters for America’s holy war against the Russian occupation of Afghanistan.

It was like killing two birds with one stone.

After a heroic struggle, and with help from the Arab fighters, the Russians withdrew from Afghanistan and the country plunged into civil war.

By Kamal Hyder in Asia on February 4th, 2011
Photo by AFP

The images of the assassination of former Egyptian president Anwar Sadat are still fresh in my mind. I remember how the assassin had shouted at Hosni Mubarak to step aside as he had come to kill the Pharaoh.

He could never have imagined that Mubarak would soon become the next Pharaoh who would rule for three decades and with an iron fist!

As a Pakistani I have always been used to the luxury of being critical.

People here have said all kinds of things about their own tyrants and very few have been diplomatic. But no one was ever picked up by the secret police or jailed for insulting the president or the prime minister.

By Kamal Hyder in Asia on January 6th, 2011
Photo by GALLO/GETTY

I remember a bumper sticker that read: "We have the best politicians money can buy!"

How appropriate.

People who have lived in Pakistan will tell you that politics and political parties are the domain of the privileged class who have not necessarily made their money the hard - and legal - way.

Flamboyance and loose mouths have always claimed lives in a country where the majority lives below the poverty line and where almost 40 per cent of the people depend on aid and extra help.

If you want to become famous, throw massive parties - and all the better when it is all paid for by the state and from the poor taxpayers' money .

The bigwigs know how to wine and dine, but have no time for the wretched masses whose mouths are still open and in want of their next meal.

If you were worried about the escalating fuel prices you would never hear any complaints from the children of the governors, minions and sycophants who have helped

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Kamal Hyder
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Kamal Hyder, Al Jazeera's Pakistan correspondent, reports from across the country.

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