Being Asif Zardari
“Islamabad is already jolted and now let’s wait for the aftershocks.” That was my first reaction at a TV talk show on Sept 7 when the anchor asked for my…
The major fault lines
WHAT happened in Islamabad last Thursday was no parable; we saw the state of Pakistan in a microcosm, with all the major fault lines etched in bold relief. How did…
Local self-government
The study by Dr Mohammad Mohabbat Khan of the Department of Public Administration, Dhaka University, on ‘the functioning of local government in Bangladesh’ stands good for most local self-governance in…
Cambodia’s neglected child rape epidemic
Su Linda, 9, left the house in the middle of the night last week to visit the outdoor toilet, a normal enough occurrence in her village in Cambodia's southern Kampot…
Governance performance
People have a lot of hopes tied to the newly-elected government in the aftermath of a failed government. Quite a backlog is there to be handled. The new government would…
PML-N’s economic manifesto, its Implementation
The PML-N economic manifesto is essentially right wing: allow the private sector to become the engine of growth by providing a level playing field and an environment conducive to its…
‘Qarz burhao, mulk bigarho
In 1997 the slogan of Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) was 'Qarz Utaro, Mulk Sanwaro' [retire debt, adorn country], which is reversed in 2013 as all efforts are underway to increase…
A plan at last
The federal interior minister’s excellent initiative for reinvigorating the National Counter-Terrorism Authority (Nacta) is most welcome as is the concept of a National Intelligence Secretariat. Nacta has been mostly dormant,…
Police: how many should die?
In the aftermath of the Dera Ismail Khan jailbreak, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Minister for Revenue and Estate Ali Amin Khan Gandapur visited the jail. Talking to reporters, he expressed his frustration…
Imperfect democracy
Holding parliamentary elections in about 60 days from a standing start, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) says that ‘local bodies’ polls cannot be held soon for various reasons. Informed…
