Chaudhry Nisar has missed the bus on August 22, 2017ISLAMABAD: Senior PML-N leader and probably the cleanest man in the party, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, has not proved to be a shrewd political strategist after all. Ever since the disqualification of his party chief, Nisar has behaved like a cow separated from its herd, or what is called a ‘gawachi gaan’ in Punjabi. His […]
Political chessboard the games, threats and attacks on August 20, 2017ISLAMABAD: By refusing to appear before the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and by preparing a reported reference against the Supreme Court’s Justice Khosa (of the Godfather fame), Nawaz Sharif and his hawks have almost declared an open war, a policy of defiance, no matter what the consequences. This defiance has also opened the deep fissures […]
The elephant and the lions den on August 18, 2017The frontpage headline in this newspaper on Wednesday Mujhey kiyon nikala was ticklish but just a few hours earlier at a gathering a very serious question was raised by a very important journalist. He repeatedly asked all of us, some journalists, some anchors and an odd minister, the question: Was Nawaz removed because of corruption? […]
An epic self-defeating revolution on August 13, 2017ISLAMABAD: Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has exhausted almost all his political capital to make his journey to Lahore an epic, or as close to it as he could manage. Though he managed to show glimpses of popular support in and near Lahore, something is deeply frustrating for the Sharif camp. This is the total […]
A show of power against . . . nobody on August 11, 2017Pakistan’s political history is full of power shows, street rallies and long marches, some successful, some destructive. But what has now been unleashed is something that is basically perverse. Ousted and disqualified Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif cynically calls it a ‘drive back home’. On his first stop in Rawalpindi he called it a referendum against […]
Hawks prevail but at whose cost on August 6, 2017ISLAMABAD: With the Sharif family split in the middle over how to handle the Nawaz ouster, there are visible signs that a direct confrontation policy is being preferred, despite indications that quiet warnings have been conveyed not to do so. Sharif, feeling badly hurt emotionally and in a state of vengeance, wants to use his […]
Should we let sleeping dogs lie? on August 4, 2017Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi was already under the NAB radar for the LNG deal before his case was closed in Karachi, not because an enquiry had been completed and he had been exonerated but because it would damage relations with a friendly Islamic country. That is why he bravely declared, just recently that he […]
Politics and pitfalls facing the new PM, Sharif family on August 2, 2017Nawaz Sharif’s insecurity to trust anyone outside his family to protect its political legacy and massive assets could seriously backfire in the present charged environment. For the moment, his party is in a state of shock and thus unable quickly to think about the future course. So everyone is standing behind him and watching how […]
Time to take charge and start behaving on July 31, 2017The so-called democrats, self-serving parliamentarians and business-loving media advocates, failed en bloc, despite their combined efforts, to save a corrupt regime led by a leader who would always claim to be, and behave like, an innocent bystander. Nawaz Sharif’s widely expected political demise must be blamed largely on his own self, then his amateur family […]
A game-changer or what? on July 27, 2017As the nation waits for a landmark judgment by the apex court, much of which seems written on the wall, what is being seriously watched is how far it may go to stop and reverse the southward slide of country’s moral fibre, decay of state institutions, political, financial or bureaucratic. The Panama ordeal and its […]