Time is running out on July 11, 2013The prime minister (PM) sits at the head of a government that is economically almost bankrupt, law and order is non-existent, insurgents rock the country almost daily with bombs, target killings are the order of the day, sectarian violence rages, corruption is unchecked, tax evasion is condoned, power shortages have crippled the people and industry, […]
Budget: a disappointment on June 21, 2013It is clear that all solutions to our grave problems cannot flow from the new government’s first budget and neither did we expect that to happen. However, we expected the first budget to draw a clear road map that would first of all give the people the confidence that the government is fully cognizant of […]
There is more than one way to go on May 22, 2013It must be said at the outset that this is no scholarly dissertation for academic appraisal nor does it aspires to qualify for theological approval. It is simply the attempt of a layman to understand and share that understanding with others. During the thousands of years of man’s existence numerous civilisations have come and gone. […]
Old vessels will have to change II on May 15, 2013Can Mian Nawaz Sharif bring about a change in our economic policy to make a complete departure from the policies of trickledown effect that have failed miserably, to bold policy initiatives that would provide relief to the impoverished masses? It can be done with the help of economists of stature in other Asian and Latin […]
Old vessels will have to change I on May 14, 2013Election 2013 may not have brought a sweeping change but there are discernible changes in the way people expressed their opinion when they were allowed to do so with relative freedom and the record numbers that voted. For the first time the electorate has punished poor performance by rejecting the parties of the last ruling […]
Is this only Punjabs election? on May 5, 2013Punjab’s role since the inception of Pakistan has been controversial, to say the least. Its dominance of the federal government, its share of economic development, with over 70 percent of the bureaucracy and over 90 percent of the armed forces from Punjab were a bone of contention for the 54 percent East Pakistanis and the […]
Caretakers are a farce on May 1, 2013Hoodwinking, subverting and bypassing is an art so masterfully cultivated by our ruling classes, usually with the support of the bureaucracy, that they are able to defeat the good intentions of other institutions and make a mockery of a good policy or a constitutional requirement or even a court order. Everything is twisted and turned […]