Challenges for General Bajwa
With many internal and external challenges confronting the nation, the new CoAS was plunged into a testing situation right from the word "go". Stepping up his drive to isolate Pakistan…
Khan versus Bajwa
THE ongoing polemical war between the former prime minister and former army chief has laid bare the political machinations that marked the erstwhile hybrid rule. The acrimonious split between the two has…
Bajwa tales
The fierce ping pong of statements by the government and the opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) continues without any signs of abating in favour of a civilised, democratic exchange. Of late,…
The Bajwa doctrine
‘Horror vacui’ – ‘nature abhors a vacuum’. Aristotle, the father of Western philosophy, postulated that wherever vacuums would occur, ‘denser surrounding material would immediately fill the vacuum’. Nawaz Sharif, not…
Will Gen Bajwa walk the talk?
In one of the most noticeable statements from the country’s military leadership, Chief of Army Staff Gen Qamar Bajwa has proposed that a “people-centric approach based on local ownership” should…
The myth of the dovish general
Now that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has appointed Qamar Bajwa as the next chief of army staff, there are some sighs of relief that are understandable, there are others that…
Budget deficit still not being dealt with!
The Khan administration inherited two unsustainable deficits that continue to plague its seven and a half months long tenure: current account and budget deficit. The current account deficit by end…
Happy New Year?
This, they say traditionally, is the turn-of-the-year season to be jolly. But even a cursory glance at the afflictions that ail Pakistan will lead inevitably and logically to the conclusion…
Establishment-e-Pakistan
A big thank you to my sister in Seattle for pointing out that Google translator translates ‘istehkam’ as ‘establishment’, but it’s unlikely that the English name for the newest political…
Army and the rupee
An old Indian friend, editor of an international newspaper in the Gulf, asked last week if it was alright to run a story suggesting that “Pakistan’s military does indeed exercise…
