Understanding Qisas and Diyat on September 20, 2013On September 13, 2013, the Supreme Court (SC) of Pakistan, during the hearing of a 2004 murder case in which a compromise had been reached, said that it may form a larger bench on the increase of the misuse of compromise laws by pardoning convicts. This decision comes in the backdrop of the decision taken […]
Europe divided over Syria attack on September 6, 2013Noam Chomsky, the antiwar activist and author, in his latest piece stated: “A US-led attack on Syria without the permission of the United Nations would be a war crime certainly, regardless of congressional approval.” Then why does the US plan to go for war when Syria has not violated any international law? It seems that […]
Chronology of constitutional amendments in Pakistan II on June 3, 2013The seventh amendment in the constitution was made effective on May 16, 1977 under which Articles 101 and 245 were altered. The prime minister was given the power of referendum to prove his popularity and the judiciary was restrained from touching issues pertaining to the armed forces. On October 17, 1985, the eighth amendment was […]
Constitutional amendments in Pakistann I on June 2, 2013Pakistan has become a laboratory for constitutional experiments is the very first line of a book titled Constitutional Development in Pakistan by G W Choudhry. This seems relevant and reasonable in 2013 as the constitution of 1973 has had 20 constitutional amendments. Here, it seems pertinent to briefly put together a few lines on historical […]
No more death sentences, Sirs! on May 17, 2013My argument is that ‘rope is not a social saviour’. The modern and advanced capitalist country, Britain of continental Europe, abolished capital punishment for murder in 1964, and in 1998 abolished for all offences and introduced mandatory sentence of life imprisonment. Now, in Britain the reasonable section of society demands the reinstatement of capital punishment […]