The quest for an Islamic state
The political ferment in Pakistan over the last few months has unexpectedly prompted excessive scrutiny and comment on my article, ‘The illusion of parliamentary democracy’ (October 26). There has been…
The face value of low interest rates
In a rather surprising move the Governor of State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), while announcing the monetary policy at a press conference last weekend, reduced the interest rate to a…
Budget proposals 2015-16 – VIII Essential tax reforms
"If we want lower taxes for growth, then spending must be curtailed so that governments won't need so much money. The next time you hear a politician promise another tax…
What’s all this about, Axactly?
I don’t know what has been more nerve-numbing: the Axact expose published in the NYT last week; the priggish denials by the bigwigs of the Axact empire in the wake…
The media’s crisis of conscience
In some ways, the Axact scandal has intimations of a classical tragedy. A powerful individual has fallen because of his own monumental failings in circumstances with which he cannot deal.…
Sinners to saints?
The problem with a dictatorial mindset is that it makes one believe that your version of a phenomenon is the only true version. Moreover, the proclivity of advisers to blindly…
Courage, convenience in bureaucracy
Pakistan's bureaucracy has declined substantially from the time Pakistan attained independence. Then a handful of CSPs managed the two wings of Pakistan. These were committed people who did not believe…
Mosque & seminary
The two emblems of Islam — the mosque and the madressah — are frequently vilified, feared and even shunned by many non-Muslims. In Pakistan, some are places to avoid, rather…
Teaching Islamiat
In the British era, schools of the Indian subcontinent did not have the formal subject of Islamiat for their Muslim students. The senior members of a family were supposed to…
Profit motive big hurdle for Ebola drugs: experts
For nearly four decades, mention of the Ebola virus has evoked death and terror, yet a simple factor - money - has stood in the way of erasing the curse,…
