Apt handling of national security – II
Our armed forces and intelligence agencies have become more hardened today than they were ever before in the conduct of Low Intensity Conflict (LIC). However, over the past decade, the…
On the edge
2008 was an evenly-spread out affair – other provinces as important as Punjab. This time it is different: the amphitheatre Punjab, the other provinces sideshows to what is happening here...or…
Colliding visions
Speaking at a Pakistan Military Academy passing-out parade last Saturday, CoAS General Ashfaq Pervaiz Kayani made assertions that, to put it politely, were inappropriate and inconsistent with facts. Said he,…
Patient surge as Ghana’s doctors strike
Thywill Tamakhe waited in frustration at a military hospital in Accra for a bed to become available for her father, as Ghana's public sector doctors' strike over pay entered a…
Time we got it right
The latest offering from the land of ironies: in a country where, in the not too distant past, much political commentary revolved around the question of constitutional immunity from prosecution…
Manifestos and women
Women once again dominate the election scene not by virtue of their presence being a determining factor in the outcome of the coming contest. It is the “women’s issue” that…
Predatory elites
Pakistan is ruled and controlled by predatory elites in whose hands power and wealth are concentrated. The ruling elites - comprising indomitable military-civil-judicial complex, unscrupulous politicians, mighty religious party leaders,…
Sour grapes or an end foretold?
As a bag-carrier of the N or Nawaz League, a role forced upon me by Chakwal necessity, I experienced in full measure three things: mediocrity, self-righteousness (amazing amounts of it)…
Remembering March 9, 2007
March 9, 2007 was, undoubtedly, a tragic day in our history - it was not mere barring the Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) from performing his duties on filing of…
Fighting sectarian terrorism
The PML-N finally faces the moment of truth for nurturing the banned sectarian terrorist outfit, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi. In Monday's parliamentary debate on Shia massacres in Quetta and Karachi, all fingers were…
