Criminals in politics
After every general election the press publishes statistics of persons facing grave criminal charges who were elected to parliament and to the state assemblies. In one state, nearly half of…
Viewpoint: Crossing the Rubicon
The PPP government did not want to do it and the caretakers did not have the mandate to comply with the Supreme Court orders regarding initiation of proceedings against former…
Budget 2013-14: Concluding Speech
Alongside is the text of concluding speech delivered by Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar, Federal Minister for Finance, Revenue, Economic Affairs, Statistics and Privatisation, in the National Assembly on 22nd June…
A thrust towards macroeconomic stabilisation?
The budget for 2013-14 disappointed general public expectations with the newly installed PML (N) government - expectation that were focused on relief after a five year steady erosion of the…
PTI in ideological wilderness
In a week that was marked by incidents of suicide bombings and targeted killings, I was astonished – and saddened – by a statement made in the sanctified environment of…
Invigorating the civil service
The buzz word these days is governance. Some political analysts have argued that governance (or for that matter bad governance) was the main determinant of the 2013 election results. Where…
Secular stirrings
It was a strange coincidence. Just as Islamist scholars from Turkey were claiming at seminars in Pakistan that the militant form of secularism had been done away in their country,…
A message from Ziarat
An attack on the Quaid’s Residency in Ziarat in the early hours of Saturday is a message that we should all try to understand. It has its symbolism. And the…
New cabinet and old mistakes
The election of Nawaz Sharif as prime minister by the National Assembly last Wednesday, followed by his oath-taking at the presidency, marked the culmination of the process of democratic political…
New cabinet and old mistakes
The election of Nawaz Sharif as prime minister by the National Assembly last Wednesday, followed by his oath-taking at the presidency, marked the culmination of the process of democratic political…
