Only independent judiciary can check authoritarian rule
Great hope for a democratic Pakistan, emerged on March 9, 2007 by the utterance of "no" to a dictator by the head of historically timid and pro-establishment judiciary, is now…
Supreme Court reborn
The Supreme Court, in its landmark judgment on Friday last, declared all the actions taken on or after November 3, 2007, by former military dictator General (r) Pervez Musharraf as…
The Kerry-Lugar debate
Imagine the Americans, of all people, destabilising Pakistan; which is what Congress has done by acting petulantly and adding intrusive, unenforceable and gratuitously offensive conditions to Kerry-Lugar. Why? Because their…
Why fiddle with our clocks?
British summer time is no ancient tradition but, like many dictatorial novelties, a creature of war. It was proposed in 1915 by a house-builder, William Willett, to give himself an…
Our democratic credentials
In these times of turmoil and unrest, chatter in support of dictatorial regimes can once again be heard in wide sections of the public. The restless populace can be heard…
The year gone by
As another frantic year comes to an end, I want to know who pushed the fast-forward button. Why is it that life seems to speed up as you get older?…
Arab spring & women
The Arab world has seen great political turmoil since the beginning of 2011. The Tunisian dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was overthrown before January ended. Then a similar turmoil…
Arabs rising
Dictatorships almost invariably end in tragedy and none more manifestly as the Arab world’s “Papa Doc” Muammar Qaddafi. His legion eccentricities – the troupe of voluptuous women body guards; the…
An inauspicious beginning
Whilst all the news about the Commando’s ‘entry’ into politics should be relegated to the footnotes of a scrapbook on the doings of dictators, which should then be thrown on…
But what if it wins?
Every government is a political government, even a military dictatorship, and a fact which most analysts and commentators forget. Every act of public policy is also a political act, because…
