Our elected representatives
In his speech at Oxford on June 14, 1957, former British Prime Minister, Clement Attlee, commented on democracy in these words: ‘Democracy means government by discussion but it is only…
Xmas and the city
Only a Russian deputy foreign minister could insult with such diplomatic finesse, and leave no bruises. `You send delegations from Pakistan every few months to us. From your National Defence…
In transit
As I write this on the terrace restaurant of a hotel in the hills in Sri Lanka, there’s a small river tumbling over huge boulders a few feet away. The…
Endangered heritage
The Indus Valley Civilisation, stretching over the area that today constitutes Pakistan, is probably the oldest known to mankind. From the remote northern reaches of the Hindu Kush mountains to…
No white heat revolutions
Former British Prime Minister Harold Wilson – twice elected – famously observed in 1964 that a week was a long time in politics. True to those words, the twist came…
When bad men combine…
When Marx spoke of the withering away of the state, he envisaged society progressing to a higher stage – a sort of classless utopia. When Pakistanis speak of their state…
Wartime politics
On December 8, 1941, the United States officially entered World War II - and from that day onwards everything within the US changed. All internal political actors ended their peacetime…
The ‘untouchable’ Mayawati
That great democrat and outstanding British leader, Winston Churchill, once said that democracy was the worst form of government — except for those forms of government that had already been…
The ‘untouchable’ Mayawati
That great democrat and outstanding British leader, Winston Churchill, once said that democracy was the worst form of government — except for those forms of government that had already been…
Comparing profits
Imagine, the French government was prepared to nationalise Arcelor Mittal to protect 650 redundancies, what is capitalism coming too? Dubbed as the clash of steel, the French abandoned the threat…
