Are military courts the answer?
The establishment of the military courts was part of the National Action Plan (NAP) unveiled on December 24, 2014 in the wake of the Army Public School, Peshawar tragedy. The…
Our coup-lovers
In background conversations, senior military officials say there is consensus in the army that the democratic dispensation should continue. Senior political representatives also say, joyfully of course, that recent tensions…
Civil-military imbalance
The ISPR press release after the corps commanders meeting, has generated unnecessary controversy over civil-military relations. It has surprised many, especially in the backdrop of the frequent huddles between the…
Military courts
Capital suggestion Legal: Forty-two years ago, the constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan prescribed progressive separation of the judiciary from the executive. Forty-two years ago, the constitution fixed a…
Soft coups
Pakistan is experiencing a ‘soft coup’ where the military has partially hobbled the Balochistan, Sindh and central governments. Soft coup is a journalistic concept, since there is little academic work…
Military courts not an answer
We have suffered the ignominy of four military coups. The fifth coup has taken place with the unanimous consent of members of the national parliament present and voting. Constitutional cover…
Facts and myths about military insubordination
It was the same army split into two which fell to the share of India and Pakistan. When they became separate forces their ethos, structure, training programmes, down to mess…
The military’s waning power
The victors who climbed the heights of Kargil and who gave Pakistan visions as divergent as those based on Islamisation and ‘moderate enlightenment’, are reduced to controlling the distribution of…
Coups can be democratic
Coups can be considered democratic if they are carried out in certain circumstances and by people approved by Washington. Otherwise, forget it. But let’s not forget the definition of the…
The coup-lovers’ brigade
Whichever way the case against the two-coup commando may go, the politicos in his line of defence have already given the people a lesson they cannot afford to ignore. Never…
