Open letter to PM, COAS: FBR and police running down Pakistanon July 10, 2020Pakistan is currently facing many conspiracies, mostly internal. One of them by the bureaucracy, led by the Federal Bureau of Revenue (FBR). The objective; to fleece business and corporate sector, hound honest businessmen and scare investors away through an obstructionist policy. No wonder, shipping carriers are leaving this country one by one. IT companies and […]
Ugly Racism rears its head – yet againon June 6, 2020“I can’t breathe.” These final words by George Floyd, before he breathed his last, revived bitter memories of a similar ordeal that David Dungay, a 26-year-old Aboriginal man went through in a Sydney prison in 2015. He was being restrained by five guards whose weight and pressure eventually silenced Dungay forever. Floyd, 46, asphyxiated the […]
How Bureaucrats Embarrass Political Bosses?on May 21, 2020The constitution of Pakistan is a sacrosanct document which draws its strength from the consensus it enjoys by all and sundry. Its Article 260(3) (b) clearly defines the term “non-Muslim.” “non-Muslim” means a person who is not a Muslim and includes a person belonging to the Christian, Hindu, Sikh, Budhist or Parsi community, a person […]
FBR destroying Pakistan’s interests/imageon May 4, 2020Let us browse two contrasting stories; Iran – currently under crippling US sanctions – is going out of way to woo Afghan government and traders into the Chabahar Port, offering free land for infrastructure to handle their imports and exports. Pakistan’s Ministry of Finance, on the contrary, is hell-bent to disincentives Afghan Transit and Bilateral […]
India tastes its own medicine: “Impunity for Non-State Actor Violence”on April 30, 2020The US Commission for International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) report delivers a stinging unexpected bolt to an infatuated Indian leadership; recommendation that India be declared a “country of particular concern.” As the narrow-minded, RSS-inspired Modi team ramped up propaganda against Pakistan, allowed its things to persecute Muslims in all possible ways and poked fun at minorities […]
Pakistan – at the mercy of cartels & SROson April 7, 2020The FIA report on sugar and wheat flour crisis came as no surprise. Surprising, nevertheless, was another round of finger-pointing among the three mainstream parties, PML-N, PPP and PTI. This accusatory mode suits all the vested interest i.e sugar producers because it easily masks the sinister cobweb of mighty cartels that operate across the country […]
Gwadar, security & inclusive developmenton February 10, 2020The journey from the exit out of the Gwadar Airport to the narrow passage through the old town – barely half a kilometre stretch – to the security check points before the Port Area and on the way to the Kohe Batil is not amusing at all. The first thing that strikes a maiden visitor […]
You must extricate yourself from steel-frame?on January 27, 2020Dear Prime Minister, your transition from a cricket star to a passionate philanthropist to an exuberant chief executive of a country currently riven with power politics has been phenomenal. But something seems to be a miss since you ascended to the coveted throne in August 2018. You seem to have frayed in the maze of […]
Is Khan steel-framed?on January 24, 2020Dear Prime Minister, as I indicated in my first letter, your style of decision-making and implementation has injected immense sense of despondency in the hearts and minds even of PTI vanguard supporters. Access to your office has considerably shrunken. Bureaucrats and “converts” to the PTI have raised steel-frames around you , and thus blinded you […]
Open Letter to PM Khanon January 19, 2020Dear Prime Minister, Personal egos can easily turn even extremely well-meaning intentions into intransigence. Your passion for retrieving “looted money” and eradicating corruption is indeed noble. After nearly 17 months into the office, your rhetoric on corruption remains as vociferous as it has ever been. The consequence; the economy is caught in a vicious spiral. […]