Anwar Syed

Barack Obama, the president of the United States, said in a public statement the other day that he supported marriage between any two men who wished to live together. Upon hearing this news, men at a dinner last night, where I was also present, decided not to vote for him in the upcoming presidential election. […]

Some of the participants in a seminar in Lahore a few days ago argued that governments in Pakistan should shift their focus from security to the building of a welfare state. This is good advice. Pakistan’s security concerns have abated in recent years. A man who enlisted in the army 40 years ago has not […]

Much has been said recently on the present government’s reported intention to dissolve the Higher Education Commission (HEC). Its former chairman, Dr Atta-ur-Rahman, has described the government’s plan as a conspiracy to destroy higher education and thus to ruin the country. During the last ten years or so the HEC has set up minimum standards, […]

A person whom a court has found guilty of contempt may be called a convicted criminal. On April 26, 2012, the Supreme Court (SC) convicted Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani of contempt of court, sentenced him to imprisonment for a few moments (till the rising of the court), which he served right there and then. […]

In systems of parliamentary democracy, all members of a cabinet are collectively responsible for the decisions made. They all have the same status and the prime minister is no more than the first among equals. That is not always the case in actual practice. If his standing within the ruling party is good and firm, […]

Those who waged the struggle for independence and created Pakistan expected that in time its people would become progressive, creative, and tolerant of one another’s differences. This for the most part has not happened. Since the beginning of Ziaul Haq’s rule, passion, fanaticism, and intolerance of the dissident have been on the rise. These developments […]

It would be hard to find a politically aware person who does not insist that the people of this country want change. Many of them place their trust in Imran Khan because they think he stands for change. A few of them wonder what kind of change he will bring about. Others remain unperturbed because, […]

Protest is the voice of disapproval of an existing state of affairs or public policy that created it. Voicing of protest is one of the individual citizen’s fundamental rights in liberal democracies. Dissociation from or opposition to an objectionable situation may be registered in more ways than one. The Magna Carta (1215) symbolised the English […]

The ‘city of lights’, the industrial and commercial hub of the country, Karachi that harbours nearly 18 million persons has been seething with anger and bleeding for several years. Even though people of other regions and ethnicities have come to live here, the Urdu-speaking people, mohajirs (immigrants) dominate its politics and society. Calm and peace […]

One evening a couple of weeks ago, Mr Asif Ali Zardari had a long meeting with Maulana Fazlur Rehman during which the latter got the impression that the president was not feeling well. He was said to have lost consciousness for a few seconds. His life had reportedly been under threat and he did not […]