Dr Haider Shah

The assumption of the premiership by Raja Pervez Ashraf and the politicisation of the office of president have emerged as the most important developments on the political scene of Pakistan. The debate about these issues has largely been hinged on technical legalities, where opposing parties dig deep into various articles of the constitution to find […]

Once, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was the prime minister of the country, and now until the last moment, we are kept unaware who will be the latest handpicked candidate for the highest post. Perhaps, in all fairness, it was not just Humpty Dumpty that had a great fall. Such is the scale of dearth of talent […]

With the appearance of a ‘planted’ interview of Malik Riaz by a Lahore-based private channel, the fast paced and high-pitched drama that began with a whispering campaign has taken a new sensational turn. As a columnist of a national daily, I must say that I have been suffering from a kind of bipolar depression after […]

All nations evolve from people living together. However, people alone do not make a nation. There are some solidifying forces that are needed to transform a crowd into a nation. Rule of law and a shared concern for the safety and sanctity of the lives of ordinary members of the community are the most important […]

Judging by frequent loss of lives from terrorist incidents, sectarian violence, target killings, family feuds and fatal accidents, one may get a feeling that in Pakistan, human life has hardly any value. But at least one Pakistani certainly has a huge price tag, reminding me of my childhood days’ popular television series, the Six Million […]

NATO’s Chicago summit concluded with a declared resolve of transferring the job of securing Afghanistan to the Afghan security forces by mid-2013. While the international community was drawing a sketch of the endgame, Pakistan stood on the sidelines, not sure whether to earn dividends from a stable Afghanistan by becoming an active supporter of the […]

I am writing these lines over a coffee in Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, where I am attending a research conference. Two factors prompted me to write about Slovenia. First, the surreal environment of this small South Central European country is so compelling that I can’t help writing about it. Second, in the city castle, […]

In a recent article, I had posed a question whether Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) would prove a Noah’s Ark or a doomed Titanic for the political leaders who have boarded it. Endorsing or condemning my assessment, many readers emailed me their valuable comments. Some of them also suggested that instead of just being critical […]

On the television screen, one watches many horrible scenes, like a bomb blast carnage, havoc caused by natural calamities and tragic air accidents. But two scenes proved most painful for me as a viewer and stand out clearly. The first one relates to Mumtaz Qadri when he was garlanded by a group of lawyers outside […]

Last year, much before Imran Khan’s public meeting in Lahore, I had examined the Khan buzz in one of my articles. I had then made a prediction that the new political party would only try to dent the urban strongholds of PML (N) and possibly, in some areas of Pakhtunkhwa, while in other areas of […]