Are we that helpless?
"If you think of yourselves as helpless and ineffectual, it is certain that you will create a despotic government to be your master. The wise despot, therefore, maintains among his…
The bubble that burst
Gen Pervez Musharraf has returned to the country. This time, mercifully, his return has not been heralded by a posse of armed soldiers clambering over a gate to pave the…
What’s in a name?
Is it just me or is the general, mainly Western-led, reaction to the Brics summit held in Durban this week a tad too sceptical and curmudgeonly? Goldman Sachs Asset Management…
Education & manifestos
It is heartening to note that the election manifestos of three of the main political parties — the PPP, the PML-N and the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf — not only mention education…
Institutional pillage
`Fiscal Neanderthals`. This is how a friend used to describe the finance and FBR bureaucracy and their parliamentary `handlers` after each bout of resistance to tax reform and the introduction…
Is this the problem?
In an article titled ‘Is Pakistan’s condition terminal?’ published in Foreign Policy, Robert Hathaway, director of the Asian Programme at the Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars in Washington, has…
The Zardari legacy
For the past four decades the PPP has thrived on the enduring Bhutto legacy. But it is the Zardari legacy on which the party is likely to be judged in…
The legacy of the PPP government
The Pakistan People’s Party got a monumental mansion built in Lahore for its supreme leader towards the close of its tenure (2008-2013), which, if doesn’t outdo, by all accounts matches…
A new IMF programme
The International Monetary Fund team is seemingly all set to revisit Islamabad soon armed with a new programme for our acquiescence, as we struggle to discharge our dues to them…
Polls: the broader view
Elections are due in a couple of months and one of the questions being asked is whether they would be an exercise in futility. I think not, even though nothing…
