Elf Habib

The holy month of Ramadan once again ramped up news and reports about ration-distribution, and doling out of food and related provisions to the needy and deserving at various venues. The recipients taking these provisions are generally made to queue, reach the donor at their turn, receive the items, exude gratitude, and reverently retreat with […]

Media in Pakistan, for over a year, have been buzzing with a rather rare and strange spectacle to decide who is the most liked, loved, lauded and top-rated Sharif in Pakistan. The contest has been created between our elected prime minister, Mian Mohammad Nawaz Sharif, and General Raheel Sharif, Chief of Army Staff, fielded by […]

The furore over the absence of a full-time foreign minister following the death of the chief of the Afghan Taliban, Mullah Akhtar Mansour, in a drone raid in Pakistan, has erupted into a call for resignation of Sartaj Aziz, Adviser to Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs. Aziz invariably is the target of most tirades in […]

The dread in some circles that the world would vanish on December 21 at last did not materialise and the world went as usual musing over the bizarre antics of the souls struck by it. Some yearned for the alien saucers hurtling them to safer skies, some rushed to the perceived sanctuaries in the scenic […]

Mian Nawaz Sharif’s seething anger and the torrent of his tirade against General (Retd) Pervez Musharraf as well his penchant for his prosecution for ousting his government have stirred the media almost ever since the general’s coup in October 1999. But now when Musharraf is actually here, striving for a second rise and stopped to […]

The way the former dictator General Pervez Musharraf has been allowed to roam freely, retching up his rhetoric, has once again demonstrated the dual standards of justice, accountability, conduct and morality as flaunted, prescribed and actually operated by our superior judiciary, media, mullahs and the kindred icons of the establishment. His arrest decreed by different […]

The paroxysm of passions to preserve the honour and reverence of the Holy Prophet (PBUH) and to stem even the slightest perceived nuances against his persona or the message as manifested in the streets of Pakistan on Friday, September 21, unfortunately unleashed a weird, wild and wanton fury for destroying life and the perilously plummeting […]

The compulsory retirement of 70 Egyptian generals by President Ahmad Morsi has kindled a new hope for the pre-eminence and sovereignty of the people and efflorescence of the democratic essentials in the developing world, particularly in the Muslim states long battered by praetorian predominance and overlordship. The step becomes even more stimulating as Egypt actually […]

Gryffindor’s sword, it must be mentioned at the outset, was the most magical, potent and effective weapon wielded by Harry Potter to vanquish Voldemort, the most vicious and virulent wizard villain in this world renowned eponymous series. He was hell bent on enforcing the absolute authoritarian command of a clan of his “pure blood” coteries […]

In April 2001, our former President Rafique Tarar moved the Lahore High Court, praying that General Pervez Musharraf would not be called the President as he was a usurper and not the constitutionally elected claimant. The petition inspired me to venture some likely alternative monikers for Mush and other Army dictators in case the superior […]