Masters of Can-Kicking on March 9, 2024Elections have come and gone but their remnants can still be felt like aftershocks of a 7.5 magnitude earthquake. Amidst it all – the high and mighty of Pakistani politics fight it out, sitting in an arena which mostly resembles a WWE ring, with all its fakery and downright lunacy. And what about the ever-burdened […]
The Night After on February 22, 2024A royal mess if ever there was one. That is how the February 2024 elections are being viewed generally. And that sentiment is not wrong! The muddle the two leading parties find themselves in goes to prove one thing – the short-term memory of the electorate is just that, short. The poor end of the […]
Rhetoric Spicier than Biryani; Morality Bland as Roti on January 11, 2024The season of elections is again around us – or is it? As mysteries go, this one not only takes the cake but perhaps the whole bakery! After a lot of smoke and mirrors – the date is set, the contestants are ready and the Election Commission of Pakistan is in action! Pun intended. Ah, […]
We Need Leaders More than Speeches on October 12, 2023The 2008 film Swing Vote was not a box-office success. It was also panned by critics in equal measure. Even after all that, one line from the script stuck with me. Before I get to that, some context. The movie revolves around a fictional US presidential election where the fate of the vote comes down […]
Israel should not Underestimate MBS on September 29, 2023Who would have thought? The defenders of the two holiest sites in Islam are about to break bread with the solitary Jewish state in the world! But that is what categorically signifies the realignment of forces in the Middle East and the wider terrain. I have written previously about earlier deals struck between Israel and […]
Lost Art of Riding into Sunset on September 7, 2023Almost all Western movies have one common shot at the end: a gunslinger riding into the sunset! This is to cap the story and showcase that whatever actions, achievements and results were possible – were indeed accomplished. As a matter of fact, this signals the end of one chapter and the beginning of another – […]
The US is Running Out of Policy Options for China on August 3, 2023“To fight a protracted war.” This is the literal translation of a four-character Chinese Chengyu idiom. It is thought to have been conceived by Sun Tzu, the great Chinese military strategist. In his era-defining book “The Art of War”, Sun Tzu says that “the supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting”. […]
The Saudi Age on June 16, 2023For over a year now, opinion in the golf world has been divided over the breakaway LIV golf league. Players, commentators and the general public have been voicing their opinions – sometimes quite vociferously – for or against this new enterprise. The main reason for this divisiveness is the fact that LIV Golf is backed […]
Sand Dunes are Shifting in the Middle East on May 28, 2023As far as détentes go, this one must be up there with the all-time greats. Saudi Arabia and Iran have been at loggerheads as far as memory can go. The leading Sunni and Shia powers in the region have even been at odds in the recent past as well. Consider. 2011 – During the Arab […]
Running with the Hare, Hunting with the Hounds on March 10, 2023Since independence, Pakistan in general and Pakistani politics, in particular, have been lurching from one crisis to another. While it is true that infant nations do tend to endure birth pangs of varying degrees, it is equally true that the universe has specially bestowed upon the Pakistani people a proportion of misery reserved only for […]