In the mirror of May 11
With intense focus on the formation of new governments at the centre and in the provinces, arguments and observations that flowed from the results of the general elections on May…
Road to nowhere?
Are we driving on a road that leads nowhere by way of peaceful transfer of power to a freely and fairly elected government? The goal of establishing a genuinely representative…
Now for some soul-searching
ONCE the froth has settled, substantive soul-searching must talce place both among those who lost and those victorious in the 2013 general election. Surely, the biggest loser (not merely in…
How Nawaz Sharif can win the day after elections
The 2013 election was billed as the most important and most historic in Pakistan’s short and oft-interrupted experience of being a democracy. It is safe to say that the performance…
Road to nowhere?
Are we driving on a road that leads nowhere by way of peaceful transfer of power to a freely and fairly elected government? The goal of establishing a genuinely representative…
The travails of the general
The fool in the eyes of the gods is one who does not know himself. Former president and army chief, Gen (r) Pervez Musharraf, lived in the illusory world of…
Militants’ language
Pakistan had braced itself for a ‘bloody’ election. It’s bad enough that being resigned to this reality was a prerequisite for further democratic consolidation. But the carnage that is unfolding…
Time we got it right
The latest offering from the land of ironies: in a country where, in the not too distant past, much political commentary revolved around the question of constitutional immunity from prosecution…
The story of a coup
Musharraf’s coup in 1999 was an aberration. The months leading to it were undoubtedly tense but in no way betrayed a trigger-happy general’s inclination to launch an offensive against his…
Election Outlook-V: Musharraf and his circumstances
"It's not Musharraf, it's the judiciary that is on trial," shouts a visibly grief-stricken lawyer at the buffet table of one of the crowded elitist clubs of Pakistan at the…
