Game of exports on June 3, 2019Pakistan’s exports to China stand at $1.7 billion and imports at $15 billion. The gap between these exports and imports has decreased in the last few months, but understandably, the import-export gap is still gargantuan. US imports from China amount to $540 billion, while Chinese imports from the US amount to $120 billion. The import-export […]
Choosing the chairman on May 22, 2019Ruling on a petitoin against the appointment of Ali Arshad Hakeem as chairman of the Federal Board of Revenue in 2013, the Islamabad High Court held it illegal and ordered the government to appoint a more suitable person in his place. The petitioner, Ashfaq Ahmed, was a grade 19 officer of the Board. The court […]
Authentic Islamic law can help global peace on May 4, 2019Muslims make up a majority of the population in 49 countries of the world. Some form of Sharia law is in force in some of these countries. Even in countries where Sharia law is not nominally in force it has had an influence on the development of laws comparable to that of Judaic law on […]
Defining terrorism – II on April 8, 2019A major issue with the definition of terrorism in the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1997 is its inconvenient inclusiveness. The definition is so broad that a large number of cases end up in the special anti-terrorism courts. The state machinery is thus overburdened and some of the most important terrorism cases are delayed. This has also […]
Defining terrorism – I on April 7, 2019The Supreme Court has reserved its judgment on the definition of ‘terrorism’. The ruling will determine which crimes can be prosecuted under the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1997. It may be helpful to review the meaning assigned to ‘terrorism’ in international jurisprudence. One can safely assert that while there is no universally agreed definition, a certain […]
Benami Act 2017; all glitter, no gold on March 27, 2019Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Act, 2017 was passed with much patronage and endorsement by sections of the bureaucracy, lawyers and the media. The objective of the law is simple; prohibit holding Benami property, restrict the right to transfer Benami properties and provide a mechanism to confiscate Benami properties. What needs to be understood here is the […]
Who will watch the watchmen? on March 12, 2019It’s a constitutional paradox, used over a plethora of events and circumstances.The phrase simply begs the question where accountability would stop? Socrates used it in relation to a guardian class of society, in modern terms it may mean the police. An institution to restrain crime, but who holds them accountable if they engage in criminal […]
Can India really stop Pakistan’s water? on February 26, 2019The Modi government has once again started threatening Pakistan, and is simultaneously building up domestic political support by announcing that it will divert the water from the Eastern Rivers from following into Pakistan. This announcement is a façade. Under the Indus Water Treaty (IWT), these three rivers, Sutlej, Beas and Ravi already belong to India […]
Imran’s first constitutional amendment on February 22, 2019For the past couple of months, the ambivalent debate on the effects of the eighteenth amendment has grasped the attention of the media, fueled in part by allegations from the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) cadre that the amendment is in danger of repeal and the diatribes of members of the treasury benches against the damage […]
How IMF is breaching human rights on January 29, 2019Recently, talks between the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Pakistan broke down. The real reason behind the breakdown in talks, at a stage where Pakistan is suffering from a balance of payments crisis, was the attempt of Imran Khan’s newly elected government to avoid the unpopular economic decisions that the IMF put up as a […]