Doctrine of necessity is alive: NA okays military courts on March 21, 2017ISLAMABAD: In a bizarre yet predictable move, the National Assembly on Tuesday passed the 28th Constitutional Amendment Bill, giving the military courts a new lease of life. The extension was approved nearly ten weeks after the sun had set on the constitutional provision that allowed military to try civilians. Civil society, including a prominent section of […]
Women who fight sexual harassment on March 18, 2017Women’s rights activists celebrated when Pakistan’s lawmakers passed the law against sexual harassment at workplace. This daunting journey started when women’s movement at least a decade ago if not more, took it upon itself to fight for the criminalisation of unwanted advances of bosses and co-workers. In 2010, we achieved a big milestone when The […]
Jamaat ul Ahrar strikes again on March 18, 2017 Islamabad: Pakistan’s security forces have lost three officials, killing eight militants in consecutive attacks within twenty-four hours on Friday. Pakistan Army’s media wing, Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR), confirmed the loss of at least one soldier in an attack on a Frontier Constabulary’s training facility in Minchinai area of Shabqadar. In another attack on […]
Pakistans democracy: a sham and a farce on March 11, 2017Islamabad — March 9th: The recent violent squabble between two parliamentarians belonging to the ruling PMLN and the party in opposition PTI, highlights a grave problem of democracy in Pakistan. The problem that damages the credibility of the entire democratic system is personality-centered culture of almost all the political parties save Jamaat-e-Islami, whose founder leader […]
Budget speech in parliament with a big P! on June 4, 2012In a bizarre show of derangement in the National Assembly on Friday, ages-old democratic norms and parliamentary traditions were conveniently put into the dustbin. During the budget speech of Finance Minister Hafeez Shaikh, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) started protest theatrics with unprecedented disregard for parliamentary norms. This disregard, however, was not a maiden venture […]
Big ban hypes political Islam on May 16, 2012“Shame on France. Hijab is our identity” — read a placard held by a burqa-clad, seven years old girl. She was part of a protest rally against the ban on burqa that took affect in France on April 11, 2011 after around two years of legislative deliberations within French parliament. France became the first European […]
Remembering Benazir Bhutto, personally! on December 25, 2011“Is she okay?” I was screaming at the top of my voice on the phone with my husband while madly driving towards General Hospital, Rawalpindi on December 27, 2007. “It is over, Marvi,” my husband cried and the line disconnected. Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto, twice prime minister of Pakistan, had paid the highest price anyone could […]
Memogate: public interest or political interest? on December 18, 2011When Nawaz Sharif decided to file a petition in the Supreme Court against whosoever had written a supposedly treasonous memo to Admiral Mike Mullen of the US, he was probably in a great hurry. Not only did he forget that the matter was already being dealt with by parliament but he could also not appreciate […]
Giving peace a chance? Thanks, but no thanks! on December 12, 2011Pakistan’s ‘government’, it seems, is well on its way to ‘give peace a chance’ in compliance with the declaration of an unelected All-Parties Conference (APC) convened by the prime minister in September this year. The otherwise ‘hawks’ when it comes to relations with India, were all adamant to invoke John Lennon — the one from […]
Let us tell NATO, no more! on November 28, 2011The anger in Islamabad is natural and understandable. The early morning attack on Pakistan’s two border security posts by NATO aircraft left nearly two dozen soldiers dead and several injured. Pakistan continues to claim (till Sunday late afternoon) that the attack was unprovoked, although a Kabul-based NATO official was quoted by The Guardian as saying […]