Sarmad Ali

In most western capitalists, this narrative is vastly prevalent that Vladimir Putin is striving to regain the lost Soviet empire’s dominance in the world. Putin’s aggressive behaviour in Ukraine and extending support to Assad’s regime in Syria is advancement towards another Pax Russiana. This is a misreading of Putin’s motives — it appears that Moscow […]

  The Supreme Court of Bangladesh had declared the sixteenth amendment to the Bangladesh Constitution ‘illegal’. The amendment was aimed at impeachment of judges of the apex courts based on misconduct or incapacity based on two-thirds majority. Immediately after the decision, questions surfaced in Pakistan about whether a similar constitutional amendment could be introduced to […]

The former President of the United States of America in 1999 granted clemency to 16 convicted terrorists despite hue and cry raised by FBI, police, the US Senate, and the House of Representatives. In 2001, on his last day in office, Clinton accepted mercy petitions of three women terrorists given long jail terms. Generally, US […]

In the wake of rapid of terrorism and unrest across Pakistan, the need of an hour is to de-weaponize Pakistan. The newly elected PM of Pakistan — in his maiden address — had shown his eagerness to introduce laws relating to de-weaponization of Pakistan. His eagerness could be applauded and should also be welcomed. To […]

In the wake of the Peshawar massacre in 2014, Pakistan lifted a moratorium on execution after 8 years. Up until today, 472 people have been sent to the gallows including those who were convicted of a single murder and ordinary criminal offences. The government in 2014 reinstated the death sentence with the intent of combating […]

Anomalies in the criminal justice system of Pakistan are very common. The example of this could be the recent Supreme Court judgements where it had acquitted two convicts who had already been executed a couple of months agoor had ordered the release of persons who had spent long years on death row. These incidences have […]

Heading a seven judges bench of Indian Supreme Court, Justice Thakur said that seeking votes in the name of religion, caste, creed or language is illegal under Indian Constitution and elections in India is a secular exercise. The bench further observed that secular ethos of the Constitution had to be maintained by keeping elections a […]

The conviction of terrorists in Pakistan is low despite Anti-Terrorism Act 1997 which was enacted to deal with terrorism in Pakistan. Pakistan, for last 15 to 20 years, has faced immense terrorism of all forms across the country. Despite Anti-Terrorism Act 1997, Pakistan has not been able to comprehensively deal with terrorism. The mentioned law […]

Access to information has been recognised as a fundamental right of people across the world as well as in Pakistan. Right to information was formally made a fundamental right in 2010 under the 18th Constitutional Amendment through insertion of Article 19 A in the Constitution of 1973. Following insertion of Article 19 A in the […]

There are four Consumer Protection Laws that are operative in Pakistan: Punjab Consumer Protection Act 2005 (PCPA), Balochistan Consumer Protection Act 2003, Islamabad Consumer Protection Act 1995, Sindh Consumer Protection Ordinance 2004 (promulgated in Sindh years ago but it lapsed as same was not presented before the provincial assembly, and NWFP (now Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) Consumer […]