A new security paradigm on June 24, 2019Pakistan is facing existential threat to its existence due to internal, external, and economic security challenges. There is a famous theory about the “Resource Curse” or the “Paradox of Plenty”, according to which the countries with abundance of natural resources suffer from democratic deficit, conflicts, and lack of development. The term was coined in the […]
A matter of priorities on June 18, 2019Sher Ali Pataudi writes in his autobiography, The Story of Soldiering and Politics in Pakstan and India that the nature of a democracy is directly linked to the means adopted to win the electoral game. He prognosticated a chaos after elections in 1970 because of the way both the major parties had conducted their electioneering. […]
Discipline — the hard core of success on June 8, 2019“With discipline, belief and the right knowledge, we become the best we can be.” (Georges St Pierre) It was the cloyingly hot summer of 1975 in the Spartan tenements of a British established military college for boys that a cohort of 50 young greenhorns listened to the cadenced oratory of our House Master, the legendary […]
The perfect storm on May 25, 2019The storm has been whipped up in the smithy of our smouldering dreams that once promised an elusive dawn. It was the dawn Faiz lamented in his inimitable style, “This smeared and stained light, this night-bitten dawn; This isn’t surely the dawn we waited for so eagerly; This isn’t surely the dawn whose desire cradled […]
Our justice system on May 13, 2019Justice being the fount of all good in societies has always been considered the most important public good that ensures order and stability in a society. Pakistan was identified as one of the most litigant societies by Lee Kwan Yu and for good reasons too. Litigation in Pakistan is both a colonial bequest as well […]
Beavers build dams on May 10, 2019The eagle may soar; beavers build dams (Bill Vaughan) For far too long the Pakistan’s planning eagles soared high with ambitious hydroelectric projects but what yielded results finally was a beaver in the form of current Chairman WAPDA, who overcame bureaucratic languor and planning minefields to inaugurate the first large storage dam of the country […]
A dysfunctional system on April 29, 2019What do you do with a system that has all the trappings of constitutional legalities but fails to help run a state as per the best governance principles and human security needs? Our country was saddled with the parliamentary system as a British bequest much like all the ex- British colonies like Australia, Canada, India, […]
Modi-duval redux on April 22, 2019Paul Young dare not sing his chart topper “Love is in the Air” in the rarefied air of Kashmir over Puna Tander where the ill- fated MiG 21 Bison flown by bewhiskered Abhi Nandan, crashed after being shot down by a Pakistani fighter aircraft. The Indian reflex action of Balakot foray, much in the nature […]
Is India a garrison state? on April 14, 2019Is India really turning into a Garrison State? The way of the Samurai in ancient Japan was a chivalric code grounded in personal honour, battle field elan, and self-immolation, regardless of the outcome of the combat. The objective was to humiliate the adversary by subjecting him to defeat in detail leaving no room for him […]
The thucydides trap on April 9, 2019The denouement of Indo-Pak war drama has featured an aerial skirmish and a litany of claims and counter claims claiming one upmanship in a deadly game of nuclear brinkmanship. India presently is nursing a wounded ego after downing of its two aircrafts, one of those being the much vaunted SU 30. The humiliation of Wing […]