A story-book vindication
When you encounter someone who looks worried and lost in thought, the obvious inference is that he is not happy with either himself or the world. It so happened that…
Power crisis
Needless to emphasise that the industrial and overall economic development of any country is inconceivable without energy security, which implies the availability of enough energy resources to cater for the…
Hope for Balochistan?
Will Nawaz Sharif’s laudable decision to choose for Balochistan’s chief ministership a Baloch from outside his party revive hope for tranquillity, good governance and progress in that much misunderstood and…
Sincerity is not enough
No government in Pakistan has ever inherited a graver and more existentially challenging set of crises and problems than the PML-N-led national government will do when it formally assumes office…
The treacherous waters of foreign policy
The newly elected National Assembly has held its inaugural session. The short but intense election campaign, which resulted in the convincing victory of the PML-N, demonstrated yet again that the…
What lies ahead
An imperfect electoral exercise copied from western models, our democracy has very little relevance to the local environment or the ‘genius of the people’. The ‘first-past-the-post-system’ does not ascertain the…
Get agrarian
Land reforms and the imposition of tax on income derived from agriculture, which is presently exempt in the majority of countries like Pakistan, are two issues that attract a lot…
The post-US order
The US loomed large during Pakistan’s election campaign season as leaders pounded their fists, promising an end to American meddling in Pakistan, a return to sovereignty and a refusal of…
Night watchmen
As the caretaker governments, federal and provincial, approach completion of their terms by end-May 2013, it becomes relevant to reflect on options for possible improvements to the appointment, functions and…
The honeymoon agenda
PM-elect Nawaz Sharif will have to distinguish between popular politics and the ‘right’ politics this time around. The possibility to deceive an electorate is almost nonexistent. The drubbing received by…
