Suppressed reports
Governments set up inquiries to allay public disquiet; whether over a financial scandal, a case of ministerial corruption or a military disaster. But, with the proverbial shortness of public memory,…
Crumbling tax system
Taxes play a vital role for establishing an egalitarian society, the true fruit of social democracy. Under a representative and responsible government, citizens are taxed according to their ability (at…
Viewpoint: Guru’s hanging
The manner in which the Kashmiri 'militant' Afzal Guru was tried and secretly hanged in New Delhi's Tihar Jail on Saturday morning and buried in the jail premises unknown to…
History revisited
Election campaigns are in full swing and, with election fever at its peak, we seem to hear and see a lot about the Musharraf case. There are also continuous updates…
An interesting crossroads
The phrase ‘may you live in interesting times’ is a Chinese curse heaped on an enemy. Frederic Coudert quotes an unknown British diplomat in 1936: “No age has been fraught…
No ray of hope
In less than 20 months all coalition forces are due to withdraw from Afghanistan. President Hamid Karzai’s outburst against the Americans had raised the question of whether Karzai wanted a…
Everything’s almost free in Spain’s parallel barter economy
It can be argued that extra-judicial interventions first by Ghulam Mohammad as Governor General in 1951 and later by military regimes and disregard of the Constitution - facilitated by either…
Islamic criteria?
How can I buy an ideology of Pakistan that someone with Ayaz Amir’s intellectual calibre is considered to be flouting and someone like Pervez Musharraf is seen to protect? The…
At a precipice
Pakistan stands devastated today due to unprecedented massive corruption. According to a recent report by Transparency International Pakistan the last five years have been the worst in the history of…
Double standards of justice
If it were not for injustice, stressed Greek philosopher Heraclitus, men wouldn’t know justice. Indian Supreme Court’s judgement handing a five-year sentence to superstar Sanjay Dutt under the Arms Act…
