Taxing secrecy
Tax declarations of holders of public office - in fact all taxpayers - do not enjoy 'confidentiality' and 'secrecy'. Declarations have to be provided by the Federal Board of Revenue…
The Punjab factor
The persistent structural flaws in information processing and coordination among intelligence and law-enforcement agencies were once again exposed during the Supreme Court suo motu hearing of the Hazara killings. The…
Dangerous liaison
Pity the nation where the blood of innocents comes cheap and murderers live under state patronage. Malik Ishaq is not an ordinary criminal. The co-founder of Lashkar-i-Jhangvi has been charged…
Wise monkeys
As the story goes, one day a young man told his mother that soon one of the members of the family would disappear. Next morning, when the family woke up,…
No wrong turn now
It is time the pernicious idea of giving a few years` contract to some caretakers to clean up Pakistan`s rotten-egg politics and put the affairs of the state in order…
The fundamentalist mind
Fundamentalism is a controversial term, ascribed first to 19thcentury American Protestant groups which preached strict adherence to basic biblical tenets. It is now applied loosely to all groups exhibiting broadly…
Creeping anarchy
Originating from multiple sources, the creeping anarchy in the country is systematic and constant. Democracy (‘the best revenge’) being a convenient camouflage for their ulterior motives, different militant groups have…
The care they can take
The constitution is silent on the precise role of the caretaker government. There is a general agreement that the caretaker setup should not take any action that favors one political…
The best government
If the federal law minister is to be taken at his word, the Swiss authorities are not going to reopen money laundering cases against President Zardari. This may be either…
Sectarian threat to polls
The brutal killing of a leading lawyer in Peshawar last Friday, apparently for his belief, should awaken everyone who wields any authority in Pakistan to the dangerous consequences of the…
