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Khan’s eight-month itch

IT was a happening week. All thanks to the prime minister who finally put aside his indecision and shuffled the cabinet portfolios, as he had been meaning to do for…

Et Tu, Khan?

Et tu, Khan?

One of Pakistan’s enduring customs is that the pessimists often carry the day while those who think positively are seen biting the dust. The smooth democratic transition of a year…

BB and the art of realpolitik

The political career of Benazir Bhutto, who was assassinated on December 27, 2007, was a saga of fluctuating fortunes. Twice she was voted to power (1988 and 1993) and twice…

BB and the art of realpolitik

The political career of Benazir Bhutto, who was assassinated on December 27, 2007, was a saga of fluctuating fortunes. Twice she was voted to power (1988 and 1993) and twice…

Remembering ABS Jafri Part – II

ABS Jafri’s first book that I read was ‘Here lies India’, containing his columns about the India-Pakistan War of 1965. During and after the war he wrote columns seven days…

Upward mobility

THE main title is misleading: Dear Mr Jinnah. It implies a familiarity between the book’s author Salman Faruqui and the Quaid. In fact, Faruqui was only eight years old in…

Accounting for change

THE resistance to change in Pakistan is an old problem but it wears a new face every few years. These days the resistance to change is wearing the face of…

Name the chief, then what?

WITH the economy in dire straits, backbreaking inflation and the country reeling in the aftermath of the devastation caused by record rainfall and floods, what is the reaction of the…

The caged country

PAKISTAN is one of the few countries where political surrogacy is still legal, where a seed can be planted by the military to gestate in the womb of democracy. Earlier…

Hunkering down

A GOOD example of how Pakistan is hunkering down further and further in the face of increasing scarcities is provided by natural gas. Pakistan has been blessed with abundant gas…