Pakistan
In 2009, started reporting for Voice of America Pashto service Ashna as a freelancer till the time.
Since December 2014, till the date work as project reporter for News Lens Pakistan covering Balochistan and around for development, conflict and political stories.
In 2012, Completed my master in Mass Communication from University of Balochistan.
In 2012, became Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) Journalist Exchange fellow, visited Afghanistan "Understanding the neighbor" exchange program.
In 2012, Wrote opinion and contributed reports and analysis for PolicyMic NY based organization from 2012 till 2013.
In 2013, Completed story writing project with United Press International [The American News Agency] from April 2013 to February 2014.
In 2013, completed Duetch Welle [DW] Akademie Training program for The Trainers "Journalists in Conflict Zones".
In 2013, Tracked promises of the political leadership in Pakistan for TruthTracker another sector of the UPI Next project from April 2013 to February 2014.
In 2013, I worked for Express Tribune as Lahore city internee correspondent in Feb-May 2013.
In 2014, I do Op-ed writing for Daily Times Pakistan.
In 2014, Write for Inzuna.com since June 2014.
In 2014, became member of National Council of Environmental Journalists (NCEJ) and The Nature News TNN.
Charsadda: Ganrhi (Jaggery-making), the traditional small industries for Gur production are centuries' old practice across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's agriculture rich districts. Thousands of miles covered with sugar-cane corps would not only make their ways to Sugar mills alone, much of them would be squeezed by simple machinery and then baked till it becomes Gurr (jaggery).
Gulzar Alam, winner of a Pride of Performance award, recently left Peshawar for Kabul from fear of losing his life - along with his children and other family members. The circumstances behind the departure of yet another star of the galaxy of Pashto music make for a tragic discussion.
For an exercise that seeks to unify a population statistically, the census has been rather divisive. In Balochistan there are three camps: those who feel the government should forge ahead and those who feel that logistical concerns should be tackled first. Then there are the folks who just want to boycott it.
'We doubt your marriage' By Malik Achakzai What is home? Is it a place or a state of mind? For some it may be the country where they are born, for many it is the country where their family resides. To 45-year-old Farida Siddiqi, home is Pakistan - the country where she lives with her husband and two children.
The Eighteenth constitutional amendment devolved administrative and legislative powers and finances to the provinces. The Constitution of Pakistan mandates establishment of local governments to achieve a decentralized and inclusive system of governance. Balochistan was the first province to conduct local government elections in 2014.
Malik Achakzai is a freelance journalist based in Pakistan's southwestern Balochistan province. The province shares its border with both Afghanistan and Iran. An ongoing Baloch insurgency over rights and resources has brought the country into the spotlight, as have military operations against insurgents, the activities of Taliban and other sectarian groups in the province and, more recently, the targeted killing of Shia Hazaras.
Quetta: Balochistan's metropolis used to be a point of attraction for the rural people who visited it from far flung areas. In addition to shopping and other activities, these people watched movies in the famous cinema houses scattered all over the city.
A propaganda radio show run by the Islamic State can be heard in parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the tribal areas, and there are fears that the transmission would help the terrorist group find new recruits in Pakistan.
Aadela, 18, was killed by her brother for receiving a phone call from a male stranger. After his neighbors reported the murder, the brother - identified as Laalko - went to the local police station to confess and surrender.
Quetta: It is that time of the year when Balochistan receives personages who come in chartered planes, bringing heavy vehicles fit for desert safari. And falcons, for they are here for a hunting safari. Arab princes from Saudi Arab and Gulf countries descend on Balochistan in December when winter is at its peak and the cold brings migratory birds from Siberia.
QUETTA, Pakistan, June 18 (News Lens Pakistan) -- Graffiti glorifying the Islamic State in southwestern Pakistan has sparked fear within the tiny 500-year-old Zikri Muslim sect, which has been targeted by hard-line militants, community leaders say.
د کوټې په ناورین کې شهیدان شوي ډېری وکیلان مې ملګري، دوستان او اشنايان وو يا مې استادان وو او يا مې ورسره د زړه خواله پر يو یا بل ځای شوې او يا مو بيا د دوی په اړه هغه وخت د دوی د ملتپالني او انسا...
Feb. 25 (News Lens Pakistan) QUETTA-- A new ban on hunting houbara bustards, migratory birds that fly to southwestern Pakistan during northern hemisphere winters, is being flouted by Arab princes who have long been given extraordinary privileges by Pakistani authorities to hunt the bird annually, according to an official of the Balochistan provincial Forest and Wildlife Department.
لیکنه: خبریال مالک اڅکزی امان الله خان اڅکزي د حاجي آغا ګل په کور کېيه سترګي روڼې کړې وې، خپلې اولنۍ زدکړې په اسلاميه سکول کې حاصلې کړې وې، بيا د پي ای اېف يا پاکستان ایېر فورس کالج سمنګلي روډ کوټ...
Chaman: With Pakistan cracking down on unregistered Afghan refugees in the border provinces, even locals are finding it hard to obtain identity papers as authorities stiffen rules and procedures.
Quetta: Abdul Qadeer Baloch who became the face of human rights struggle in the case of missing Baloch persons, leading a 2000 kilometer protest walk from Quetta to Islamabad last year, says he was stopped from traveling abroad because the authorities didn't want their voice to be heard globally.
Quetta: Baluchistan the militancy stuck province is having the highest maternal mortality rate owing to the absence of health services, tribal culture, lower socio-economic status of the masses and no security to medical officials and non-governmental organizations' workers. Bibi Razia, of Zhob district in northern Balochistan, was struggling to give birth to her 11th child when she breathed her last.
Quetta: The capital city of Balochistan, Quetta, once compared to London due to its bowl like structure owing to its beautiful natural position, now has cracked roads and becomes a lake in a rainy day where boats are needed to go around it. Situation in the other districts of Balochistan is worst.
Quetta (by Malik Achakzai / Shahmir Baloch): While the troubled province of Balochistan may have taken the lead in forming a local government, the tricky matter of transfer of power and authority to local bodies will really determine if they can deliver, say local government representatives.
Chaman: Muhammad Amin holds the hand of his baby girl to the polio worker (vaccinator) at the border crossing. They are at the Bab-e-Dosti, or the Friendship Gate, crossing over from Afghanistan into Chaman. The thumb of one year old Farida is marked blue - a sign that she has been vaccinated for polio.
HELMAND, Afghanistan - The Taliban prison in Nad' Ali has been bombed, killing 22 and wounding three others; most of the victims are Afghan Security Forces personnel, said an Afghan Taliban spokesman. Additionally, another air strike in the same area has killed 24 Taliban members, including their commander, with 4 others being wounded.
Quetta: The wild olive forests in Balochistan is under threat to be eradicated forever as local communities use it for fuel, sheltering and grazing. The natural olive forests fall in the category of Dry Subtropical Broad-leaved Forests, occurring at an altitude range of 450-1500 m and in area
KABUL, Afghanistan: An attack on American University in Afghanistan killed 13 and wounded 35 others. The militants hit the wall of the school with an explosives laden vehicle and entered the university premises. The Afghan Security Forces soon reached the premises to chase the militants and safeguard the students and staff inside the university, according to the Interior Ministry Spokesperson Sediq Seddiqi.
Peshawar: Electronic Crimes Bill of Pakistan, which is likely to be presented before the parliament for approval soon, is unacceptable for political and right activists who term it as an attack on the freedom of expression. The bill has already been approved by the Senate's Standing Committee
Quetta: Baluchistan, territory-wise the largest province of Pakistan, is enriched with natural resources but is caught up between Baloch insurgency, sectarian violence and Taliban militancy that is making serious impact on the livelihood of laborers and skilled workers.
KABUL, Afghanistan - The Afghan intelligence agency, National Directorate of Security, has confirmed that they have freed the Australian woman named Kerry Jane Wilson who was abducted from her home in Jalalabad in April. Wilson was working with a humanitarian organization, and has been released from her captors in the Nangarhar province; people have been arrested with alleged connections to Kerry's abduction.
PESHAWAR, Pakistan - On Friday, August 19, well-known religious scholar Sheikh Ghulam Hazrat was killed, along with his father Sheikh Khwaja Muhammad Hazrat, in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa capital of Peshawar. The victims were traveling when unknown gunmen targeted their car; no group has claimed the death of the Afghan clerics.
Special campaign Community Health Volunteers are launched to administer polio vaccination in Balochistan, where young volunteer women are paid to continue work throughout the month. These anti polio vaccinating teams are busy in the Pakistan Afghanistn bordering town of Chaman.
KABUL, Afghanistan- Yesterday, August 31, the Taliban has released the fresh video message of the Canadian-American family, who are asking for a change in Afghan government policies awarding death penalties to "these men", referring to Taliban leaders who are being held in Afghan prisons.
By Malik Achakzai BANNU, Pakistan (Inzuna) - Some come in cars, and others on animals' backs. Some just walk underneath the hot desert sun. But thousands of people (66,237 according to official sources), among them women, children, and the elderly are arriving in Bannu, Pakistan with their families as they flee North Waziristan.
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (News Lens Pakistan) -- Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in Pakistan's northwest is running a weapons training program for students, teachers and lower-level staff in response to the December attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar. Provincial Information Minister Mushtaq Ahmad Ghani announced Jan.
As many as 100 people were killed and 200 injured in suicide and car bomb blasts in Quetta's Alamdar Road area on Thursday. Before the twin blasts, in the afternoon a bomb detonated near a vehicle of security forces in the center of the city.
QUETTA, Pakistan (News Lens Pakistan) -- Pakistan has almost completed a security trench along a portion of its Afghan border, but critics say that not only will it fail to increase security, it will exacerbate tensions between the two countries.
By Malik Achakzai QUETTA, Pakistan (Inzuna) - A big cloud of dust swirls above our Corolla as it gets onto the road. Black shade surrounds the car. Nobody can see the traffic coming towards us, and we are not sure the cars coming at us can see us.
ISLAMABAD: "Economically, the road from North Waziristan to Khost is the shortest route to link Afghanistan with the southern port city of Karachi, which is the main supply route to transit goods to our country," said Baryalay Rawan, the spokesperson of Khost Governor Abdul Jabbar Naeemi in Afghanistan.
Quetta (by Malik Achakzai): Few candidates from Balochistan make it to the country's superior civil services through the annual competition exam - the CSS or Central Superior Services. Observers put that to the poor quality of education in the province so that only those students from the
a documentary about her journeys to Afghanistan since 9/11, the making of her album Ariana Delawari is a multimedia artist. She a musician, director, actress, and photographer. A graduate of USC School of Cinematic Arts, she just finished directing We Came Home Lion of Panjshir, and her family story.
Quetta: Political parties and civil society activists in Khyber Pasktunkhwa and Balochistan are protesting against the alleged change in plan for the "economic corridor" route between Pakistan and China, believing it is a conspiracy against them . The 2000 kilometer road and train link between the port city of Gawadar in Balochistan, Pakistan, and the western [...]
Ziarat ( Balochistan): White smoke coming out of metal chimneys on houses covered in snow is visible from all over the Ziarat valley. As the year's first snow fall lands softly on the Juniper forests in Ziarat, the poor people of the valley are desperate for fuel to keep themselves warm as the mercury plunges below 6 degree centigrade.
The historic Afghan presidential elections were on April 5, 2014, which saw more than seven million Afghans cast their vote. According to preliminary reports, the turnout was more than 58 percent. This, in a developing country with a history of three decades lost in deadly war. It was a tough
Chaman: Samad Khan is busy unloading a 40-foot container from a train at the Chaman railway station. The effort tires out Khan, who is 82 and has a full beard that is completely white. He asks his fellow laborer if he can rest for a while.
Malik Achakzai QUETTA : Talib Aka lived in Balochistan's, the militancy stuck province's Killa Abdullah district. He and his fellow villagers had enough cultivated land before the two decades long drought spread in the region. Ancient Karez system-a traditional way of gravitational watering channels almost dried around the province.
QUETTA, Pakistan, (News Lens Pakistan) -- As hardline militants continue to gun down polio vaccine workers in Pakistan, health workers continue their efforts to protect children. Pakistan's polio rate has quadrupled in the past year, according to the World Health Organization, with spokesman Oliver Rosenbauer telling News Lens that as of Nov.
According to police, a bomb exploded as the passenger bus was on its way through the Matni Bazar area Saturday. Prime Minister of Pakistan Mir Hazar Khan Khoso condemned the bomb blast, resulting into the loss of precious human lives in Pakistan. "At least nine passengers have been killed and seven injured.
Last week, representatives from the United States and the Taliban began Afghanistan peace talks in Qatar. Afghan President Hamid Karzai's High Peace Council is expected to follow up with its own talks with the Taliban a few days later. The first meeting will focus on an exchange of agendas and consultations on next steps.
Quetta: Surkhab Refugee Camp is an hour drive from Quetta, the capital of the southwestern Balochistan province. Not so long ago, it used to bustle with Afghan refugees that had fled to Pakistan in the wake of Russian invasion to Afghanistan in the eighties.
One of Afghanistan's biggest archaeological treasures may soon be turned to dust as a Chinese mining company which has bought the site turns it into a sprawling, billion-dollar copper mine. The Buddhas of Aynak, situated in a desert region 20 minutes southwest of Kabul, is an archaeological site containing ancient Buddhist artifacts dated over 2,500 years old.
The Afghanistan High Peace Council returned to Kabul after a successful visit to Islamabad. The delegation, led by the HPC head Salahuddin Rabbani, met with high level Pakistani officials and discussed the ongoing peace process. Some sources confirmed 13 are being freed after the three-day visit of the Afghan delegation, including close comrades of Mullah Omer.
A huge amount of weapons seized.
Home / Urdu Stories / سردی کی لہر، زیارت کے باسی صنوبر کے درخت جلانے لگے
Home / Urdu Stories / پاک افغان ٹرانزٹ تجارت کا حجم کم ہونے سے سینکڑوں محنت کش فاقوں پر مجبور
Amid the military operation in North Waziristan, about 10,000 families from Mirali and Miranshah have fled their homes to settle in the Borikhail village of the Garizo district of Afghanistan's Khost province. Their camp is called Gulan, or flowers. The UNHCR is helping the local authorities register and assist the refugees.
Home / Urdu Stories / افغان مہاجرین کی واپسی ' توقعات و خدشات
Dec. 3, ZIARAT, Pakistan (UPI Next) -- A 247,000-acre forest of juniper trees, some of which are thousands of years old, in Pakistan's southwest may soon vanish because of the dearth of government conservation efforts and the felling of trees by villagers seeking fuel.
In a recent briefing to the media, Afghan president Hamid Karzai said, "The Afghan Taliban are ready for peace negotiations with us, but they aren't allowed to because the Pakistani authorities are keeping their families hostage. I will request that NATO, ISAF, and other coalition partners work to free up the Taliban from the grip of Pakistani state intelligence agencies."
QUETTA, Pakistan (UPI Next) -- Nasir Khan, a waiter with a polio-stricken 3-year-old son, is one of the faces of a boycott of polio vaccinations by conservative Islamic leaders in Pakistan who claim the campaign is a Western conspiracy to limit Muslim populations by causing AIDS and sterility.
Opinion by By Malik Achakzai Afghan runoff election, political and security changes in the region By Malik Achakzai Yesterday the Afghan run-off election was held successfully, but just a few days back presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah's convoy was stuck by two suicide bombs that killed 6 and injured 22 others.
Dec. 6 QUETTA, Pakistan (UPI Next) --More than 50,000 security personnel were deployed to secure the balloting process for the local elections Saturday (Dec. 7) in the Pakistani province of Baluchistan. Voters were to select members of local governments, such as district councils, in the first local elections since the 2005 polling under then-Pakistani military leader Pervez Musharraf.
Being freelancer, contributing writer, pundit, reader, rest lover and interested in Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Iran, Central Asia, China, Russia and American Politics, International Relations, Political Economy, Human Rights, Health, Ecology, Geography, Archaeology, Theology, Buddhism. I completed my two years of master's from the department of Mass Communication at University of Baluchistan at Quetta.
Voice of America Ashna (Pashto Radio) United Press International [Next] Reporter, Pundit at PolicyMic.com, researcher, freelancer & contributing writer Quetta, Balochistan Hailing from Chaman, the bordering town between Pakistan and Afghanistan, he completed his graduation from the said town. Then went for university to the capital city of Quetta where he joined University of Balochistan.
Dec. 7 QUETTA, Pakistan (UPI Next) --Initial results in local elections in Pakistan's Baluchistan province Saturday showed the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, the party of Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, and its partners in the coalition governing the province, the National Party and Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party, were ahead.
Note: Truth Tracker uses the symbol of PML-N because it is the major coalition partner in the Balochistan Government Promise Chief Minister Dr Abdul Malik Baloch has said that his administration will hold talks with all Baloch insurgent groups after Eid ul Fitr.
Dec. 6 QUETTA, Pakistan (UPI Next) --More than 50,000 security personnel were deployed to secure the balloting process for the local elections Saturday (Dec. 7) in the Pakistani province of Baluchistan. Voters were to select members of local governments, such as district councils, in the first local elections since the 2005 polling under then-Pakistani military leader Pervez Musharraf.
Being freelancer, contributing writer, pundit, reader, rest lover and interested in Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Iran, Central Asia, China, Russia and American Politics, International Relations, Political Economy, Human Rights, Health, Ecology, Geography, Archaeology, Theology, Buddhism. I completed my two years of master's from the department of Mass Communication at University of Baluchistan at Quetta.
QUETTA, Pakistan, March 13 (UPI Next) -- Drought and power shortages have decimated agriculture in parts of Pakistan's largest province, Balochistan, and driven local villagers to Quetta, the provincial capital. Gulistan, a town on Balochistan's dusty border with Afghanistan, is one such place.