Andleeb Abbas

In corporate sector it is known as the “seth (tycoon) culture.” The seth/owner sets up a business, does everything himself, expands it, puts family members in management positions, and makes all the decisions himself until the business retrenches and finishes. This is the classic case study of how to make a good venture bad. The […]

You cannot sell a bad product with a good advertisement. That is the principle of long term selling. This may be true for business of products and services but for the business of politics it may just sound ridiculous. Switch on any channel, and you see advertisements of roads being built, poor being served, electricity […]

We are in government but we do not govern. This contradiction is the reason why governments fail to perform. Heads of government ministries, functions, divisions and institutions are responsible and answerable for their performance. Take this accountability away, the very notion of democracy fades into insignificance. The very notion of public service becomes a mockery. […]

We can call it missing in action; we can call it missing in communication; we can call it missing in implementation, but missing it is. We need to give advertisements of ‘wanted-foreign policy’, which seem to have disappeared in the context of regional or global politics. If you ever want to produce a book on […]

Matters of heart are matters of life. Heart issues and heart tissues are matters of high priority, high specialty and high complexity. When one of the most specialised institutions in the country, the Pakistan Institute of Cardiology (PIC), fails to save patients suffering from heart problems at an unprecedented rate, it is a matter that […]

From body bags to bags of money, the horror/thriller continues. First it was 500 million rupees found in the luggage of model, Ayyan Ali, and now it is 750 million rupees found in 12 bags in water tanks and car bumpers of Mushtaq Raisani, Finance Secretary, Balochistan, which has made the grab-the-money-and-fly cliché become a […]

It is the reverse psychology of the apple story of Adam. The best way to make anything much wanted is to ban it. A movie that would have at best done average in cinema has all of a sudden become the most talked about, tweeted about and watched movie. Maalik has been receiving free publicity […]

When the prime minister is unwell, democracy is in danger of being derailed. Curing an illness has many remedies. In the middle of a grave personal and political crisis that has apparently impacted the prime minister’s health to the extent that he had to go overseas to get treatment, reportedly, retail therapy overtook allopathic therapy. […]

Have a look at this curriculum vitae. Barely educated or possessing a fake degree; having millions in assets but only declared a pittance; mega corruption cases either in process or have been going on for years; never paid a rupee in taxes or does not even possess an NTN number; is highly skilled in lying, […]

While the whole world is engrossed in the Panama leaks, in Pakistan the ‘Chhotu leaks’ are finally spilling over the no-go domain. For decades terrorism in Pakistan is associated, mainly, with Waziristan and other tribal areas. While every area of the north has been dissected and debated to hunt down terrorists, terrorism originating from south […]