Speed money
Speed money is exactly what it means - it speeds things along. In my management career, spanning 50 years, the most valuable lesson I learnt was from Agha Hasan Abedi.…
The Raymond Davis affair
A mercenary contracted to American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Raymond Davis recently published his book 'The Contractor: How I Landed in a Pakistani Prison and Ignited a Diplomatic Crisis'. The…
Saviours of corruption
SOS. Save our Souls, No. Rather, Sell our Souls. That is the current status of the horse and cattle show in the Senate. This show will may be over in…
Playing with empire
MORE than six weeks since the longest war in US history ended in almost surreal circumstances with the re-establishment of the ‘Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan’, Washington’s political and military establishment…
Corrupt body politics – II
The slow progress of mega corruption cases lying with NAB and how corrupt our body politics has become can be gauged from the following sample cases: 1. In its report…
The last frontier
The latest India-Pakistan spat at the UN General Assembly reflects a trend that I have grown accustomed to in my living memory. In Kashmir, I am all too familiar with…
Social media as oppression
First off, let me briefly define social media so as to differentiate it from traditional media as well as ‘alternative media’. By social media I imply such outlets where the…
A season for all books
Apart from the heat generated by the unruly sun, new books are scorching the milieu and pushing the ever-raging debates on Pakistan and its socio-political trajectories to a new high…
Stuck in the Afghan muck
According to legend, Alexander the Great’s mother sent him a letter taunting him for being stuck in Afghanistan for three years after conquering Anatolia, Mesopotamia and Persia in a year.…
Changing times
Just a few months ago, Pakistan was facing the prospect of international isolation. India had scuttled the Saarc summit, and the world was slamming Pakistan for its terrorism record. Only…
