Ali Malik

Unlike what the mainstream media believes, portrays, or covers, I have always found a PML-N government to be a comic affair. Ever since their first stints of power in my teen years, every time they have been in power, in their desire to look ultra-smart they end up providing comic relief to the observers. This […]

After the Industrial Revolution, one key utility of nation states stemmed from some of the key utilities that states provided to the citizens either on their own or through a monopoly or oligopoly based mechanism. So, whether states were created on the basis of ethnicity, religion or whatever, once created, states would become custodians of […]

In the aftermath of the Peshawar massacre, talk of the national counterterrorism plan has been at the fore of the country’s polity. In that discussion, the issue of military courts has emerged as the most debated issue. Just when all the political parties, with some reservations, agreed to the setting up of special/military courts in […]

Some debts have to be repaid, not because they matter to the one they are owed to but because they are essential for the cycle of life. It has been seven years into the end of the life that was Benazir Bhutto, a life that inspired many in my generation and the generations that followed. […]

With the Federal Reserve drawing down the stimulus facility, the global economy has already started feeling the jitters caused by the cash squeeze. Hopes are that the European Central Bank (ECB) will introduce its own stimulus package within the next few weeks to fill the vacuum that resulted from ending the Federal Reserve stimulus. The […]

In our world, all major cities and human settlements are built around either rivers or coasts. Even most of the large settlements on the coast are built on or around the deltas of rivers. The reasons behind human settlements next to water channels are obvious: the availability of water for consumption and drainage, and for […]

The Middle East is a region undergoing rapid changes. What emerged as a civil war to oust the Assad regime in Syria, led to the creation of the Islamic State (IS) that is now threatening the geopolitical map of the region. On the other hand, after over a year of back channel contacts, the west, […]

One thing that has come to the fore in recent months is that the establishment, even in its transformed role, remains the most significant power player in Pakistan. The actions and strategies of key political players need to accommodate the establishment’s considerations and thinking. And yet there seems to be little exercise going on into […]

Last week, in Kot Radha Krishan, a man and his pregnant wife were set on fire by a mob for alleged blasphemy. The act hardly comes as a shock. The real shock is that we have learnt to live with cruelty in the name of religion. Violence in the name of religion is rampant here. […]

Last week, on these pages, I mentioned how the personal political likes and dislikes of men in powerful positions in the state’s apparatus impacted the political process in Pakistan and how it politicized the state institutions of the army, judiciary and bureaucracy, leading to crippling of the state’s machinery and writ of the state. From […]