Iftekhar A Khan

Many weeks before the elections were held, the nation had been prepared for an election mode. Political speeches and social media played the main role. But speculations were rife whether the elections would be held in time or postponed. The caretaker government deserves credit for holding the elections on time. The credit ended here and […]

According to the State Bank of Pakistan, the country’s internal and external financial burden has reached Rs64 trillion, which means every citizen old and new-born is in debt of Rs250,000. The World Bank and UNICEF give the bad news that Pakistan’s external debt amounting to $127 billion places it in the first position among the […]

When the Chief Justice of Pakistan with a consensus decision of the President and the Chief Election Commissioner announced Feb 8 as the election date, many doubted if these would be held on the same date. A newspaper headline, “SC sets election date in stone”, referred to the Chief Justice of Pakistan and should have […]

The elections planned for February 8 lack the usual lustre, mass rallies, flag-bearing marches, and fervour typical of such an occasion. During the campaign speeches, politicians in the run make big promises to fascinate the crowd and win their votes. Most of these promises are almost impossible to keep. For instance, as an election manifesto, […]

When the elections were announced for Feb 8 and some lodged petitions to postpone them for various reasons, a large majority in the country is worried more about its living conditions, which are worsening with time. It’s disheartening for any sensitive and thinking citizen to see our country sinking economically and mouths to feed rising […]

The nation, in the last few years, has been passing through a stage when anxiety was written large on most faces. The worry so manifested varied from one class of society to another. Broadly, if we divide society into four main classes, the feelings of anxiety for each class could be perceived in its true […]

Mian Nawaz Sharif’s return to the base has made his followers happy and his opponents morose. As a politician, he has much to recount in terms of his achievements during the years he was in power. It’s human nature that whatever one possesses is taken for granted. For example, if the Lahore-Islamabad motorway didn’t exist, […]

Israel’s behaviour is symptomatic of a rudderless country outside the ambit of international laws. Will Israel’s genocidal attack on a hospital in Gaza that killed about 500 people and injured innumerable others, including children, cause any embarrassment or shame to its ‘ironclad’ supporters? Or will Israel dropping white phosphorus bombs in Gaza’s thickly populated areas, […]

How many times in the past was the PIA placed at the verge of privatisation but it survived? And how many times PIA’s competitor in loss-making, the Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM), was put up for privatisation but it also survived? Even the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in February this year demanded the government to privatise […]

The bomb blasts in two mosques on the day of the birth of the Holy Prophet when the faithful gathered to pray was the most unfortunate event. The blast in a mosque in Dist. Mastung, Baluchistan, killed 52 people and injured 70 others. Simultaneously, another blast took place in a mosque in Hangu in Khyber […]