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The Year Gone By

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?…

Remembering Benazir

Remembering Benazir

December 27, 2012 marks the fifth death anniversary of Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto, the great visionary leader, who resisted with great courage the agenda of neo-colonial forces - pushing Pakistan to…

Winds Of Change

Winds of change

Winds of change are blowing across Pakistan. With the advent of the New Year, there is a twinkle of hope in many eyes that 2013 will mean the beginning of…

Lone Rangers In The Drone Zone

Lone rangers in the drone zone

For several months last year, I was at the receiving end of occasional emails that conformed to a particular pattern. They all began with a reasonably uncontroversial critique of the…

Our Elected Representatives

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 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…