To prevent rape, fight masculinity
One month on, public outrage at the gang rape and barbaric brutalisation of a 23-year-old physiotherapy student in Delhi, causing her death, refuses to die down. Among the factors driving…
The heart of the matter
With all the distraction that is created by politics, the latest invasion being the promised long march by Tahirul Qadri, the momentous issue at this time is religious extremism and…
Palestine and US humbug
Maybe I’m a bit biased, having served in a UN peacekeeping mission and thus making and maintaining contact with some urbane and highly intelligent people in the UN headquarters in…
Why nations fail
Some books should be made mandatory reading not just for Pakistan’s parliamentarians but its power elites. Two relatively recent books deal with a theme I have touched upon extensively since…
What is there to talk about?
The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) delights in showing us off as a helpless and contemptible force. So last week, when the TTP’s offer of peace talks hit the newswires we perked…
Outcome of judicial activism
The PPP chairman, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, in his first public speech, underlined the exercise of judicial activism by the Supreme Court of Pakistan and objected to the court’s performance. He…
Torture inquiry
Britain’s leading civil and human rights organisations have written to the judge who is to head an investigation into the UK’s involvement in torture and rendition, setting out what they…
The imperative of subversion
The passing of the so-called ‘Fair Trial’ Bill in the National Assembly this past week should have raised eyebrows. Notwithstanding its name, the legislation will empower state agencies to intercept…
Nobody supports the Taliban but…
The picturesque Swat valley is still under the army’s control. Although businessmen are confident as the property market is stable, people are generally worried. They simply want an end to…
Concept of judicial Independence
The judiciary as a custodian of the constitution and guarantor of the fundamental rights of the people is not only considered as the most sanctimonious organ of the state machinery,…
