Too little, too late
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s government has finally indicated it will use force against select bands of the local Taliban militants after months of indecisiveness and inaction. The mantra of peace…
Slide towards isolation
IT is ironic that in the wake of the rightwing political mantra about a `free` and `sovereign` Pakistan, recent reports on socio-cultural indicators depict a dismal picture of the country`s…
Where does the AAP stand?
As the Lok Sabha election looms, India’s political battle lines are being redrawn. The Congress, mauled in recent elections, is dispirited. Rahul Gandhi’s probable anointment as its prime ministerial candidate…
Bigoted and smug
OUR National Assembly has condemned Abdul Quader Molla`s execution (Bengali citizen, Bengali political leader, hanged after trial before the Bangladeshi International Crimes Tribunal and after appeal and review before Bangladesh…
Let glory be the CJ’s
CHIEF Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry seems determined to end his long and eventful tenure in a blaze of glory. In the process, there is hope that at least some of the…
Violence against women
PAKISTAN has good reason to ponder the consequences of the high level of violence against women during the campaign called 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-based Violence that ends on…
Case for a new ATA
THE prime minister has taken some concrete legal steps to demonstrate his government’s commitments to counter terrorism. These are in the form of two recent ordinances; one to amend the…
Why they don’t drop dead
LAST Friday the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) organised a ‘March against Hunger’ to demand that the government and civil society enhance people’s awareness of their right to basic…
Enemies of joy
Again and again, there is this evidence that we are not able or allowed to live like normal, civilised individuals. Our rights as citizens of a free and democratic nation…
Like foie gras
The structure and composition of the Security Council, the most powerful organ of the United Nations, has remained unchanged since it was founded in 1945, except for the increase in…
