These elections will introduce a new binary to politics: Nawaz or anti-Nawaz. This may sound strange to anyone who is familiar with the1970s, 80s, and90s when Bhutto or anti-Bhutto was the prevalent binary. The choice was stark. Either you stood by the masses and voted for Zulfiqar and Benazir Bhutto, or you supported the pro-establishment […]
Why Shahbaz is wrong
Nawaz has always been the more aggressive of the two brothers, demanding control over policy-making from the country’s powerful establishment. He stood up to President Ghulam Ishaq Khan in early 1990s, and forced resignation from one Chief of Army Staff, Jahangir Karamat, and tried to dismiss another, Pervez Musharraf, in late 1990s. He remained vocal […]
Time to call out the Generals
Failure to get its Senate Chairman elected has come as a rude shock for the PML-N, probably its biggest loss since Nawaz Sharif’s disqualification last July. Since his ouster, the former Prime Minister gained immense popularity in the masses and won key by-elections due to his pro-democracy narrative. After a winning stride in popular politics, […]
Political consequences of the youth bulge
We are barely a month into 2018 but it almost feels like a decade has passed. It is hard to believe all that has happened in this month alone; Trump’s anti-Pakistan tweets, the joint opposition’s Lahore dharna, Dr Zafar Arif’s shocking death, the Balochistan assembly fiasco, Zainab’s heartbreaking tragedy and the perpetrator’s arrest two weeks […]
The rise of Khadim Hussain
Khadim Hussain and his zealots held the federal capital at siege for almost three weeks before the government decided to use force to disperse the protesters. The government played smart by not using force earlier because it understands that the real issue is not the couple of thousands of miscreants blocking the road, it is […]
Establishment versus Altaf
Karachi’s politics is playing out like a terribly scripted comedy. One wonders whether to laugh at the goofy antics of the city’s politicians, or lament over the ill-fated masses of urban Sindh who they claim to represent. At the core of all these complexities, factional rivalries, and ego-wars, lies a very simple reason: the establishment […]
The futile attempts to subjugate Nawaz
The military establishment seems to be operating under some stress these days. Internal and external events over the last decade have eroded the deep-state’s control to the extent that it depends largely on media and the judiciary to strengthen its power. There have been attempts to subjugate Nawaz Sharif, most of which have ended in […]
Dear interior minister, please do your job
Vicious attacks on Ahmed Noorani last Friday have laid bare the ground realities of Pakistan, where any dissent to the military establishment’s narrative is met with brute force. This is the most recent of a slew of incidents where people critical of the establishment’s excesses were threatened, abducted, and tortured by the state apparatus. Although […]
Songs of destruction
Captain (retd) Safdar’s hateful speech in the National Assembly against an already oppressed minority was one of the lowest moments in our Parliament’s history. His outburst ostensibly targeted military leadership and the judiciary via coded messages arousing prejudice against the Ahmadis and glorifying Mumtaz Qadri. This was not an isolated incident as blasphemy allegations were […]
A frustrated establishment
This is a moment of deep crisis for the Pakistani establishment. Its troubles began with Nawaz Sharif’s unexpected decision to protest his disqualification by holding rallies along the GT Road as he travelled from Islamabad to his home base in Lahore. The outpouring of massive crowds in his support turned him into the most popular […]