2017: Instability, manufactured crises and surrender on December 31, 2017The foregoing year was tumultuous to say the least. Pakistan’s ruling elites – elected and unelected – reinforced old patterns of governance. After ten years of democratic transition, it seems that the gains made by the parliament have been partially reversed. At the end of 2017, we witness a resurgence of the judiciary-military combine as […]
The unbearable cost of advocating peace on December 24, 2017Raza Mahmood Khan, a peace activist and a human rights’ defender from Lahore, is missing since December 2. No one knows where he is and why has he been picked up. That such enforced disappearances continue to happen makes a mockery of Pakistan’s constitution and it’s justice system. Raza’s disappearance also exposes the limits of […]
Nawaz’s sixer? on December 22, 2017Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) chief Nawaz Sharif’s recent statement on the clear succession plan has killed many birds with the same stone. Amid uncertainty surrounding the future of democracy and, in particular, the fate of Nawaz Sharif, many pundits were of the view that an intra-Sharif conflict would facilitate the break-up of the ruling party. […]
The relationship with US matters whether we like it or not on December 10, 2017Despite the tough posturing by the United States and Pakistan, following the announcement of Trump’s South Asia strategy, both countries have resumed diplomatic engagement in recent weeks. The latest was the visit of US Defence Secretary James Mattis to Pakistan. While the divergence in their objectives and strategies continues, there seems to be a clear […]
Regime change — the final act? on November 26, 2017It seems that the ruling party Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) PMLN has entered the final round of its power struggle. With its party head disqualified as prime minister, the government is now besieged by angry fanatics in Islamabad and other parts of the country. As it has happened before in the country’s history the Army […]
Mixing politics with religion continues unabated on November 19, 2017For nearly a fortnight, a motley group of clerics and their supporters have caused a blockade of Islamabad – the capital of a nuclear nation – protesting against an alleged offence to faith. In October, a minor change in the oath taken by politicians had sparked protests. The change of words from ‘I solemnly swear’ […]
Pakistan’s democratic transition is derailed. Does anyone care? on November 12, 2017Pakistan’s decade-old democratic transition is going nowhere. Ten years after the military president Gen Musharraf removed his uniform and paved the way for national elections, we are back to square one. Worse, the defective democracy today resembles the decade of the 1990s where political elites were scrambling for power in cahoots with the military establishment […]
Don’t turn CPEC into another holy cow. Transparency is a must on November 5, 2017There is no question that the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is a transformational endeavour but the larger questions of transparency and Pakistan’s commitments remain unclear. Beijing and Islamabad are in the process of finalising a Long-term Plan (LTP), spread over a decade to define direction and goals of cooperation under the CPEC framework. Earlier […]
Civil-military tensions continue even after Nawaz’s ouster on October 15, 2017Pakistan’s decade long democratic transition has entered into an uncertain phase. As the second elected Parliament inches towards the end of its term, civilian authority has eroded beyond repair. It is up to the democrats if they wish to regain some of the lost ground or would let this slide continue. The ouster of Nawaz […]
Mainstreaming militants? Not without a political strategy on October 8, 2017The powers-that-be are all set to undertake a new experiment — mainstreaming of militants into national politics. This is yet another rushed plan that is being pushed without an open debate and a comprehensive strategy that ordinarily would require input from the Parliament and the civil society. If history is any guide, a decade later, […]