Abdul Quayyum Khan Kundi

Former cricket team mates of Imran Khan told me that he would tell them that they will win a tournament despite not having a chance. Indeed, the team would end up losing. In other words, Imran Khan has always lived in an imaginary world where he always wins and cannot tolerate a loss. His team […]

There are two things that make me quite uneasy: one is the useless rhetoric of politicians and the other is the shortsighted views of our writers, artists and intellectuals. We cannot emerge as a stronger society until we resolve the contradictions in these separate but related trends. Most of the writers that have the courage […]

Political parties in Pakistan are mostly fiefdoms rather than institutions. Lack of organisation, structure and intellectual depth gives rise to reliance on political rhetoric rather than substance. This becomes a breeding ground for short-term political opportunism rather than long-term strategic planning. This state of affairs is exacerbated because Pakistan does not have a long democratic […]

Finally, the Pakistani legislature approved the foreign policy recommendations of the Parliamentary Committee on National Security (PCNS), removing the major hurdle in the resumption of NATO supply lines. The final document is a little better than the first one, especially since it calls for removal of all intelligence assets from Pakistani soil and stoppage of […]

The PCNS draft links Pakistan’s access to civil nuclear technology with its availability to India. We must understand that our energy independence is not contingent upon relations between other nations. As a sovereign state, Pakistan should have access to all civilian technologies and should not accept any conditionality on that. Ensuring access to affordable energy […]

The NATO supply routes through Pakistan were blocked after the Salala incident in November 2011 in which the NATO troops were involved in killing of 26 Pakistani soldiers and destruction of two border posts. A parliamentary committee on national security (PCNS) was given the responsibility to conduct a strategic review to reform the terms of […]

Politics is an important activity in any civilised society but it is not a soap opera. In Pakistan, though, it feels just like that: fascinating people by its machinations on a daily basis and impinging on all walks of our lives. In other countries, there is a small percentage of the population that is activist […]

The avalanche of 9/11 shattered the delicate balance of power, producing a cascade of events that are now approaching an end and the world is slowly moving towards a new equilibrium. It is important for Pakistan’s foreign policy planners to understand the diplomatic chess board positions, approach of the players and strategic options available. A […]

Capitalism is the economic manifestation of secular democracy. In its ideal form, a capitalist society should have free markets, no price control, no regulations, no barriers to entry or exit, and free flow of capital. This idealistic view of capitalism was never in practice but was credited with the rise of the west. In the […]

The most referenced definition of democracy is ‘a government of the people by the people’. The other is ‘no taxation without representation’. The former pertains to the representation in legislative decision-making that conforms to the aspirations of the people while the latter addresses the right of the people to use national resources fairly. The debate […]