IA Rehman —the man behind the legend on April 14, 2021“IA Rehman never lost hope. Irrespective of how bad things were, he was an eternal optimist and always believed things would work out. He never let anger towards anyone or anything fester,” Dr Mehdi Hasan, the veteran journalist and media historian, fondly recalls. This was no mean feat, especially considering the trauma Rehman Sb endured […]
Senate elections in Pakistan: An anticlimax? on March 14, 2021In a closely followed match between Opposition and PTI for the two top slots for Senate, government backed candidates emerged victorious with Sanjrani beating Gilani and PTI-backed Senator Mirza Mohammad Afridi was elected deputy chairman, beating opposition candidate Maulana Abdul GhafoorHaideri of the JUI-F. An interesting coincidence in both the elections was Number 7. Seen […]
Win of Gilani and what it means for PTI on March 5, 2021Gilani, supported by Opposition Alliance won the Senate seat from Islamabad with 169 votes against PTI backed Hafeez Sheikh who lost with 164 votes. Six votes were rejected on technical grounds, with decision remaining the same on recount. With support of 180 lawmakers when coming to power, Khan was asked to resign when he lost […]
Win of Gilani and what it means for PTI on March 4, 2021Gilani, supported by Opposition Alliance won the Senate seat from Islamabad with 169 votes against PTI backed Hafeez Sheikh who lost with 164 votes. Six votes were rejected on technical grounds, with decision remaining the same on recount. With support of 180 lawmakers when coming to power, Khan was asked to resign when he lost […]
Afghan Peace: A mirage? on February 18, 2021The present methodology chosen to address Afghanistan’s woes is aimed to achieving a ‘quick fix’. This methodology is a mirage. A thoughtful analysis is required of the Afghan matrix to achieve peace mission. If most players are awarded limited or no share in the division of power, there will be a negative cascading impact leading […]
Will political factions in Afghanistan come to terms with each other? on February 8, 2021In a society, devastated by decades of war, determining how power is to be distributed to strike a balance aimed at leading to sustainable peace is not an easy task. An understanding on peace should be a priority for Biden’s administration. Agreement with Taliban alone to the exclusion of others will not lead to long […]
A responsible withdrawal from Afghanistan under Biden? on January 29, 2021Peace talks for Afghanistan have progressed at snail’s pace, stalled, then restarted, then stalled-with the process continuing in this pattern for a long time. U.S policy was to try smoothen out differences between the Kabul government and Taliban. However, Taliban has always declared the Afghan government as illegitimate, therefore the efforts did not meet with […]
Arnab Goswami with his bag of goodies on January 23, 2021Dated 23 February 2019, in a whatsapp chat between the Republic TV Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami and BARC’s then chief executive ParthoDasgupta, discussing how it can work wonders for channel ratings. [Balakot] The lid blew off a foul smelling cauldron of muck. This chat is part of Mumbai Police’s charge sheet, submitted before a court that focuses on […]
Impact of UK deal with European Union and Pakistan on December 31, 2020What intrinsically this means for U.K is that their produce, may it be medicines, cars, groceries and so on, will not face tariffs as they export them to European Union. Boris Johnson, in his announcement of the deal says: “It is the first ever trade agreement based on zero tariffs and zero quotas that the […]
Year 2020 for Pakistan and the world on December 26, 2020COVID 19 has completely changed life as we knew it for people world over. Of course since stupidity has no bounds, millions held protests against lockdowns, refused to wear masks and endangered not only themselves, but through them their loved ones. The disease saw industries closing, smaller enterprises go out of work, more and more […]