Political expediency vs economic necessity
An average citizen must be totally confused about the state of the economy after hearing, on the one hand, the official/IMF pronouncements that economic stabilisation has been achieved and, on…
The cost of political expediency
If for nothing else, the ruling Pakistan People’s Party deserves accolades for completing four years in the saddle. This in itself is quite an achievement, given that the average life…
Policy, reform & political change
PUBLIC policies struggle to survive, and reform agendas get stalled in times of political change. At best, uncertainty surrounds them; at worst, they are scrapped by political opponents when they…
Co-optation and expediency
IN part, out of the anxieties imposed by global concerns with religious fundamentalism, and in part, due to events in Pakistan’s immediate neighbourhood, significant intellectual and policy attention is devoted…
Search for a political settlement
Three years ago – on May 6, 2018 – I barely survived an assassination attempt on my life as the interior minister of the country. Although my bullet wounds have…
Morality vs expediency
Since ancient times, philosophers, theorists, and political scientists have pondered over the interplay between politics and morality. What complicates the debate are diverse notions of fundamental concepts: the right and…
Senate polls & political malaise
RECENT controversies over the form and nature of the Senate election lay bare some long-standing and fundamental problems with Pakistan’s political landscape. The first, and what some may call the…
Politics of expediency
PAKISTAN’S politics looks increasingly like the rerun of an old movie in which the actors remain the same and so does the plot which twists and turns to an unsurprising…
The accountant and political dimensions of FY17 budget
You have got to give it to the Accountant. He has enormous energy: Frankfurt to Islamabad to Dubai to the Parliament, adding numbers all the time. He even found time…
Beyond political rhetoric
Donald Trump is all set to enter the White House as the 45th president of the United States. Alienation and economic anxiety largely deriving from the dynamics of globalisation have…
