We need a level playing field on May 9, 2018Tentatively elections 2018 could possibly be held in July or a little later subject to Monsoon, sowing and cutting season — or any other Act of God or devil whatever. I had spelled out my doubts in one of my columns here headlined ‘There’s many a slip ‘twixt the cup and the lip’. Knowing the […]
Mourning Hazaras isn’t enough on May 2, 2018At the time of writing this piece the hunger strike by the members of Hazara community following the targeted killing in Quetta, entered the fourth day. They want to wake up the authorities to the sad plight of Hazara Shia community. They want the army to do something substantive to ameliorate their deep pain and […]
Many a slip ‘twixt the cup and the lip’ on April 25, 2018In the obtaining scenario in Pakistan when elections — if held — are not far, a state of flux reinforced by uncertainty seems to be holding the fort. Prime Minister Shahid Khan Abbasi is confident that elections would be held in time, so says ‘Awami’ Chief Justice Saqib Nisar who has reassured that if there […]
How to save Pakistan? on April 18, 2018Encouraged by the religious-political and remunerative gains of blackmail, it seems that more sit-ins will take place before we reach the deadline for the general elections. Right now it seems that the incumbent government is the weakest government we have ever had, and innocent citizens are being pushed into the cold. Meanwhile, political engineering and […]
Pakistan’s ticking time bombs on April 11, 2018The National Assembly’s (NA) final session is in progress. Unfortunately, the outgoing governments, its two Prime Minister’s (PM) and numerous other ministers have done nothing to honour this house. They all walk shamelessly tall, despite their numerous failures and the plethora of corruption that precedes them wherever they go. All the while, this country’s citizens’ […]
Bhutto was not born to die on April 4, 2018In every nation’s history there are individuals who are larger than life, whose indelible imprints on sands of time are inerasable, and who are not born to die. Pakistan too has had a few such leaders. Pakistan’s founder Quaid-e-Azam was first among them. He was a powerful personality and lucky to die a natural death […]
Recipe for a national disaster on March 28, 2018It will be a tremendous achievement in 70 years to complete a full decade of democracy in a few months’ time notwithstanding confusion getting worst confounded by the powers that be who perhaps need bell, book and candle treatment to exorcise them of their hideous doctrinarian ambitions. Prime Minister Shahid Khaqqan Abbasi’s statement that there […]
Begum Bhutto and dictators on March 21, 2018The picture of an Independence Day march by the first contingent of Pakistan Women National Guard in 1947 is a manifestation of Quaid-e-Azam’s Pakistan and the role that he had envisioned for Pakistani women. Women’s National Guard was established by the widow of Pakistan’s first Prime Minister Begum Ra’ana Liaquat Ali Khan. It shows leading […]
As you sow so shall you reap! on March 14, 2018In my last column here titled Interesting times! I had talked about Pakistan being a country having no dull moments. It was just on the eve of elections for the Senate Chairman and Deputy Chairman and the atmosphere was pregnant with expectations of unexpected as Charles Dickens would like to put it. Except Maryam Nawaz […]
Interesting times… on March 7, 2018“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it […]