Andleeb Abbas

After the Arab Spring came the ‘Panama Spring’. The Arab Spring came, shocked, whimpered and faded. The present Panama Spring is being termed as another seasonal wind that will ‘appear’ to be creating a storm but will turn into a lull before the summer takes on. The premise behind this cynicism is that both are […]

The country is working on a moment-to-moment action and reaction basis. When it comes to cricket, Pakistani cricket team performs best in the shorter versions. From test matches to 50-over games to T20, the success probability increases as the shorter version takes over. Thus, the second One-Day against Australia in Dubai where the match was […]

When criminals are in the hiding they should not be pursued. As long as you are not caught you are innocent. Out of geographical boundaries, out of legal boundaries — that is the definition of money stowed away in grey warehouses in foreign lands. The Panama Papers have created sensation everywhere in the world. From […]

It is do or die for us. How many times have we heard our leaders make claims that this is a sink or swim for us, that and we will do everything to end perpetrators of terror? Why do we then always end up taking the ‘die option’ and wait for a heartbreaking number of […]

Guess what is more supreme than law, parliament, court, constitution? Believe it or not, it is medical leave. To be declared too sick to be treated in this country has become the ‘Great Escape’ for alleged crime-doers in Pakistan. Becoming sick for certain people is not a moment of fear and sorrow but of happiness […]

Asif Zardari wants to delete his infamous speech. Maria Sharapova wants to wash away the drug from her blood samples. Volkswagon wants to erase faked reports about the emission level of its cars. Memories may be short but nearly everything we say is archived and google-able. Thus it is amazing how people from the most […]

Trump triumphs are intriguing all and sundry. He has become an object of ridicule, an object of study, an object of debate and thereby, an object of reluctant fascination. Perhaps, nobody really expected Trump to be anything more than a nuisance value but his front-running spree as a Republican nominee has taken many, including himself, […]

What happens to the perception of a religion when the head of a leading religious political party condemns the Women Protection Bill by saying: “This bill is a humiliation of husbands?” This statement itself, in my view, is a humiliation of religion. Does any religion, and especially Islam, promote violence, and that too against the […]

What goes around comes around. This law of nature is quoted frequently but followed infrequently. The tendency of human nature to selectively use these laws is the first proof of how interpretation of most such clichés are conveniently reserved for others and how for most leaders power, position and resources are synonymous with being beyond […]

Make it so technical and complex that even those few who know cannot know. That is the essence of creating non-transparent transparency. Mega projects are being signed with many countries involving mega money and questions are being raised on price, process and management. The answers are so technically opaque that neither parliament nor the public […]