Mental health rights
SOME years ago, in a landmark ruling, the Supreme Court issued a transformative decision in the Safia Bano case, significantly advancing the integration of mental health considerations into the country’s…
Salvaging PTI’s reform agenda
Capitalising on its reforms in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the PTI came into government promising major reforms to improve the quality of governance, including civil service, justice, police, local government. But after…
Time for a woman on the Supreme Court
The writer is the inaugural dean of the Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston Univeristy and former vice chancellor of the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS). One hundred…
Inter-institutional dialogue, but how?
THE realisation has been growing over the past few years that Pakistan needs some kind of dialogue among state institutions at the highest level. The thought behind this is that…
Quacks of all kinds
The Punjab Healthcare Commission has suddenly decided to clamp down on assorted treatment centres in the province. These health centres had been operating for a long time but now the…
On a slippery slope
Under the shadow of the grave political crisis that has overwhelmed us with a sense of uncertainty and deep anxiety, there is so much else – with obvious implications for…
Crises in the shadows
Ramazan has been a cruel month. A time for piety and forbearance has yielded a harvest of fear, anxiety and vicious political bickering. Terror has surfaced again in Karachi, the…
Intimidating the judiciary
With Karachi relatively safer than it was two years ago, we must not be lulled into thinking that terrorists and political target killers have been eliminated; their deep roots still…
Back in the saddle?
Is Nawaz Sharif’s autumn of despair over? The Panamagate inquiry seems to have hit a snag after the judges decided not to give up their ‘hard-earned’ winter break with a…
Judging the judges
A few weeks back, the Supreme Court refused to admit for hearing a constitutional petition on strengthening procedures for judicial accountability in the country. Among other things, the petition requested…
