Charting Pakistan Internal Security Policy
Pakistan recently announced National Action Plan focuses on combatting both terrorism and militancy and addresses endemic insecurity and radicalization. The plan follows in the…
Publish At Your Peril
Pakistani journalists hold placards and photographs bearing the image of Geo television journalist Hamid Mir during a protest against the attack on Mir by…
Watching the watchdog
Democracy is like an infertile woman that cannot produce anything, thundered a popular columnist (a real opinion-maker) at the Association of Physicians of Pakistani…
Ghamdi on Islam and the Taliban
A friend sent this piece with an introductory message that “Ghamdi’s life is under threat by the Taleban as they want to eliminate all…
A risky transition?
For The News on Sunday Only a democratic dispensation that enjoys people’s mandate will be able to handle the disastrous energy crisis, the spillover…
Consensus is vital for democracy
Any morality-led reinterpretation of the supreme law will open doors for future misuse The federal government seems to have escaped many a crisis in…
Enigma of democratic governance
Pakistan’s President Iskander Mirza (1956-58) is remarked to have said that democracy was ‘unsuited’ to the genius of Pakistani people. Decades later, similar questions…
A Shifting Political Landscape
By Raza Rumi: If there is any single constant in Pakistani politics it is perennial instability. More so when fledgling democracies struggle to change…
Democracy – the only option
Much has been elaborated on the binding constraints faced by Pakistani democracy. Conventional wisdom suggests that the civil-military imbalance has left little space for…
Ardent messiah lovers and regime change in Pakistan
Erosion of public institutions under authoritarian regimes is an undeniable lesson of our history. At a time when al Qaeda and its cohorts are…
Rescuing the Pakistani state
Pakistani, and by extension the global media, are regurgitating tiresome cliches about corruption without talking about reforming state institutions. For instance, not a single…
Two years and counting…
My piece published in The News The obvious fallout of the media-government war has been a virtual blackout of what the civilian governments have…
How instability is garnered
My latest analysis published by The News We continue to bemoan the failure of democratic norms to take root in our governance culture. True,…
Should we bid farewell to democracy in Pakistan?
Published in The NEWS It is still not too late that PML-N and PPP and the regional parties sit together and agree on the…
This night bitten dawn
The triumph of a popular movement on March 16 has marked a new beginning. The retreat of an intransigent government and the wise response…
Suicide Democrats
I am appalled by the recent events that have yet again stirred instability and uncertainty into Pakistani politics. Those of us who voted in…
“animal rights” for alleged terrorists!!
How horrific to read this news-analysis with this grim end-note: “while the bourgeoisie likes to proclaim India the ‘world’s largest democracy,’ it is increasingly…
The Indic civilisation
By Ishtiaq Ahmed Today’s article coincides with India’s declaration as a republic in 1950. The civilisational roots of modern India are always worth discussing,…
Anyone listening?
Thanks to my friend Temporal, I had a chance to read this account of contemporary Pakistan – The diary of a border crosser –…
National Consultation On Communalism-Anhad
Irfan Habib from Delhi has shared the proceedings of a two day discussion that veered around several aspects of the problem, including the rise…