Harsh lessons from regime change
Although the event went largely unreported in Pakistan and elsewhere, a Coptic church was burned down in the Libyan city of Benghazi on March 4. Earlier, there was an assassination…
How he blew it!
Let’s hand it to Asif Ali Zardari – what fate decrees he accepts uncomplainingly. As the consort of the vastly more educated and cerebral Benazir he struggled manfully even if…
Of distant dreams and false myths
The goodwill Indians and Pakistanis manifest for each other can vanish in a jiffy when the hate-mongers on both sides get going. The ensuing slanging match usually takes the form…
The undisputed power
When one views the pictures of president George W. Bush being informed of 9/11, bewilderment and shock are evident. After all the American mainland, protected by two oceans, had never…
The long shadow of Afzal Guru
When Afzal Guru was hanged secretly last month in Tihar Jail, Indian officials claimed that it was a simple case of the law taking its course and that politics had…
The care that needs taking
Caretaker government is a funny name. Caretaker. A government ostensibly charged to care for the nation betwixt the time that one has completed its term and another is elected? Caretaker.…
FATF and AML compliance requirements
1. Legal Measures: Criminalization of Offences, Investigations and Prosecutions: FATF recommendations require Criminalization of money laundering through domestic legislation.1 The recommendations also provide to specify the scope of liability in…
Dubious assumptions
For some reason that only a team of historians and social scientists may fathom, our public discourse is, and has been, influenced more by dubious assumptions than facts. This is…
Wise monkeys
As the story goes, one day a young man told his mother that soon one of the members of the family would disappear. Next morning, when the family woke up,…
Dereliction of diplomatic norms
Adam Thomson, Her Britannic Majesty’s High Commissioner in Pakistan, could do with a refresher course on diplomacy. He told a select group of journalists at his residence in Islamabad on…
