No longer status quo
So the Swiss letter affair is over, with barely a blip appearing on the national political radar. Never mind that the federal government was hostage to the issue for three…
Too many cooks
It has been too much of Kargil in the last few weeks, though I still have a column to wrap up about what has been an important revisit triggered by…
Justice or revenge?
The International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) set up in Bangladesh in 2010 by Prime Minister Hasina Wajid’s Awami League government, sentenced Abdul Quader Mollah, a senior Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) leader, to life…
The shadow over Pakistan
The Soviet pullout from Afghanistan in 1989 was a triumph for our military establishment. The ISI and the Zia regime, while not solely responsible for that outcome, had helped bring…
Roots of mistrust
CAN militants reignite the insurgency in India-held Kashmir? This apprehension is a major hurdle in the trust-building process between India and Pakistan. Delhi is still fearful that the militants based…
The evolving scenarios
Afzal Guru’s secret hanging on Saturday, conventional laws of dialectics direct us to believe, has spawned multi-layered linkages, ranging from corrosive domestic politics to high military strategy. Of these perhaps…
The rupee rollercoaster
I first heard about it in the summer 2010, from Dr Ehtesham Ahmed, who had served as adviser to the executive director for Pakistan on the board of the IMF,…
Sectarian threat to polls
The brutal killing of a leading lawyer in Peshawar last Friday, apparently for his belief, should awaken everyone who wields any authority in Pakistan to the dangerous consequences of the…
Laundering one’s sins
Had our politicians been like their Indian counterparts, they would have taken a dip in the waters at Attock (the confluence of the rivers Indus and Kabul) or at Panjnad…
No more the centre
Even though provinces now hold more powers than has ever been the case since 1947, with 17 key ministries devolved to them in phases following the passage of the 18th…
