The by-elections of October 16 have conveyed a clear message. In normal political conditions, the results of the by-elections would not have inspired elaborate comments. However, in the current political impasse, we can hardly afford to ignore the message given by the populace. Imran Khan’s political movement against the ruling coalition has reached its peak. […]
Do We Have a Democratic or Theocratic State?
The political, security and economic conditions of the country continue to trouble conscious citizenry. The nation has been grappling with political polarization and the onerous woes of the bad economic situation aggravated by the regime change in April 2022. Two other serious issues brewing up are the resurgence of the security spectre in the scenic […]
The Imperiled National Security
The unauthorized recording of conversations of the highest within the fortified walls of high offices has laid bare our national security system. This should have caused alarms ringing about the security lapses in the country. Instead, these audio leaks have provided fodder to our politicians to start a new blame game against each other. The […]
The Declining Fortunes of the People’s Party
I witnessed the birth of the Pakistan People’s Party in 1967 under Z A Bhutto, its cyclical rise and eclipse under the charismatic leadership of Begum Nusrat Bhutto and Muhtarma Benazir Bhutto and its precipitous fall under Zardaris. In the wake of its humiliating defeat in the successive general elections of 2013 and 2018 in […]
Martyrdom of Murtaza Bhutto
I was posted as Consul in our Mission in Birmingham when the iconic son of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was martyred near the Bhuttos’ ancestral house -70 Clifton in Karachi on 20 September 1996. The gloom of that tragic evening is etched in my memory when I was showered with queries from angry and worried Pakistanis […]
Alarming Situation in the Country
A columnist has put it succinctly that the “Pakistani elite lives in a state of denial believing that the status quo in which they live an affluent life insulated from broader society is permanent. It is not. The bubble is collapsing, and the result will not be pretty”. This may strike pessimistic to some of […]
75 years of Life in Freedom: A Moment Of Reckoning (Part II)
Pakistan was achieved through a democratic movement and given its territorial making or geographical composition. It could have been kept together by functional democratic institutions as a federal and parliamentary state with adequate autonomy to its constituent states. The third Martial Law in the country by General Zia was a fatal blow to democracy in […]
The 75 years of Life in Freedom: A Moment of Reckoning
As a conscious citizen of this country, I have traversed a stream of jolting events and violent turns of history in my country that, over years, have caused me disillusionment and reinvigorated too my hopes in the resilience of this land. Many countries have survived more tumultuous and tragic histories than that of Pakistan and […]
We have Criminally ignored Education
Education plays the most crucial role in the development of a society and a nation. The pivotal role of education in nation-building can hardly be overemphasized. The Muslims had always been in search of knowledge by teaching and learning. The western nations were groping in the dark alleys of ignorance when a Muslim society in […]
Strategic Compulsions and Economic Predicaments
Though strategically situated, Pakistan came into being with certain security compulsions. The bigger dominion in the east acceded to the division of the Sub-continent with a heavy heart and never spared any chance to destabilise Pakistan or undo the division of the Bharat Mata. Ignoring the principles of the division, it sent its troops into […]