Democratic institutions, not Guardians please on July 2, 2018As Pakistan heads towards another election cycle, it has become clear that there are certain powers in Pakistan who would like to see ‘controlled democracy’, or as Ayub Khan and his coterie were given to saying, a democracy suited to the genius of the people. As was the case in the 1950s when the original […]
Dirty politics and a flawed constitution on June 25, 2018Are politicians’ personal lives really personal? Julius Caesar the greatest politician from antiquity was not exempt from public attacks on his personal life. His love life was a subject of many a conversation in Rome. His divorce with Pompeia gave rise to the oft-used expression “Caesar’s wife must be above suspicion”. This was in Rome […]
Resolving the Kashmir dispute on June 19, 2018The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) recently released a fair and balanced human rights report on Kashmir. Predictably, it has been dismissed with contempt by the Indian Ministry of External Affairs. The report notes that India rejected access to Indian administered Kashmir. Meanwhile, Pakistan made access to Pakistan administered […]
Re-imagining Pakistan on June 11, 2018Husain Haqqani is Pakistan’s most famous exile at the moment. This is because of the infamous Memogate case, about which the less is said the better. My own past relationship with him has been fraught with unease, primarily because I disagreed with several historical claims in his previous books. Having myself spent a great amount […]
Harassment and the law on June 4, 2018No less than 80 young teenage girls have reportedly been harassed in Bahria College Islamabad. The reported offender is an examiner employed by the Federal Board of Intermediate and Secondary Examination. He is said to have not only inappropriately touched these young girls but made inappropriate comments as well. What is more is that this […]
Major challenges for the caretaker PM on May 28, 2018A caretaker Prime Minister has to be appointed in accordance with Articles 224(1A) and 224(A) of the Constitution. So far there seems to be no consensus on the name and ultimately the issue has to be resolved by the President in consultation with the Election Commission of Pakistan. This time around another Mir Hazar Khan […]
Nawaz Sharif — the ghaddar on May 21, 2018Was Nawaz Sharif once the ladla of the establishment? Yes. So was Zulfikar Ali Bhutto when he was dispatched by Field Marshall Ayub Khan to dissuade Maulana Bhashani from joining the ranks of the combined opposition united under Fatima Jinnah’s heroic candidacy for the office of the president. Yet Bhutto’s government was ultimately overthrown by […]
Pakistan and India, the failure of nation state idea on May 7, 2018Pakistan and India are two foremost examples today of why the idea of nation state as organization of humanity has turned out to be an unmitigated disaster at least in this Century. The Peace of Westphalia in 1648 was no doubt an iconic achievement bringing to an end the wars of religion in Europe and […]
Foreign case law and Ahmadis on April 30, 2018According to news reports, the Chief Justice of Pakistan Saqib Nisar while hearing a case recently emanating out of a custody matter seriously reprimanded Mr Feisal Naqvi for quoting Indian judgments in support of his arguments. He declared that Pakistan’s judgments had been drafted keeping in view Islamic injunctions and therefore no occasion for quoting […]
Hindu right wing and Jawaharlal Nehru on April 23, 2018A recent article by the eminent Pakistani physicist Dr Pervez Hoodbhoy in Dawn lays out why by burying Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru’s legacy in India, the Hindu right wing is hurting Indian secularism and therefore making India a mirror image of Pakistan. Reading the article one is struck by two things: First is how ignorant the […]