Ikram Sehgal

To give an account of the money looted by the elected representatives of the people of Pakistan, the civil servants whose job it is to ensure the money is not looted along with, associates consisting of their immediate family, relatives, friends, etc, enjoying the illegal wealth, it is necessary to list the major cases before NAB Punjab presently being auctioned at Lahore. These include … [Read more...] about By hook or by crook

Governments and organizations, world over, spend billions of dollars every year promoting their ‘products’ whether it be individuals, political parties, corporate entities, programs, etc. While history records many propaganda campaigns the most successful in recorded history is Germany’s Minister for Propaganda Joseph Goebbels propagating of Hitler and Nazi-ism in the 1930s till 1945. Massive … [Read more...] about Using advertising for influence

After some initial political hiccups, the Imran Khan government has passed the acid test last week when it handled the countrywide protests of religious parties wisely and successfully negotiated an agreement with the protest leaders. The previous government had allowed a similar situation to go on for weeks, devastating the capital and destroying public and private property before coming to an … [Read more...] about Misusing religion

The situation in our country in the wake of global and internal changes affecting Pakistan has evoked multiple challenges. Not to get bogged down by their sheer number it seems important to analyse each and every challenge that the country is facing. These need not only a reaction from the state to tackle them but as an opportunity for developing new vistas of understanding for responding to the … [Read more...] about Ensuring challenges provide opportunities

Continents being defined as “main continuous expanses of land” makes one wonder why Europe and Asia, though very much a continuous land mass have been perceived through the many centuries as two separate continents. One major reason may be that the western end of the Eurasian landmass was taking a very different turn in its development with renaissance, scientific and industrial revolutions and … [Read more...] about The Eurasian concept

While the odd problems about corruption did exist in NAB before Munir Hafeez as Chairman NAB institutionalised the "sharing of the loot" by making "plea bargain" into a very lucrative art, it was really Asif Zardari President of Pakistan who made NAB virtually ineffective, all within the ambit of the Constitution. Pliant NAB Chairmen were brought in, no surprise that without effective prosecution … [Read more...] about Protecting the accountability process

During their meeting at Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt in 2009, then PM Yousuf Raza Gilani handed over a dossier of RAW’s involvement in terrorist activities to his counterpart, PM Manmohan Singh. The dossier highlighted just how India’s security and intelligence agencies had been using Afghanistan’s soil to train and fund terrorist activities in FATA and other parts of Pakistan. Far more than any other … [Read more...] about Hybrid warfare challenges for Pakistan

In 2013, Shoaib Suddle, the Federal Tax Ombudsman investigating Malik Riaz and Arsalan Iftikhar, son of former chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, ordered the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to recover of Rs 119 billion owed by real estate tycoon Malik Riaz in taxes. No surprise that this was set aside by then president, Asif Ali Zardari. The key to most of Malik Riaz's successes since 2008, was to … [Read more...] about The ‘untouchable’ Malik Riaz

The definitions of what Hybrid Warfare is are different between the US and Russia, so much so, that the actual tools are different until today as well. The US is the more 'modern' or 'creative' user while Russia is more conservative and relies more on traditional tools. One very prominent tool of the US Hybrid Warfare is regime change, this aims bring a government into power that supports the US … [Read more...] about Different forms of hybrid warfare

Initiated in 2014, the Ashiana-Iqbal Project could not be completed mainly because an illegal award increased the cost, if the project is initiated now the increased cost of Rs 40 billion will be borne either by the applicants or by the government. As Director General (DG) of Lahore Development Authority (LDA) from 2013 to 2016,Ahad Khan Cheema was also a Board Member of Punjab Land Development … [Read more...] about Spreading falsehood and distorting facts