Search for a political settlement
Three years ago – on May 6, 2018 – I barely survived an assassination attempt on my life as the interior minister of the country. Although my bullet wounds have…
Women and political inequality
GENDER inequality takes a variety of forms in Pakistan, but a fundamental one — and one whose rectification may help address all other variants as well — is political inequality.…
Political polarization
Somalia is in a political crisis. For the first time in the country’s recent history, the four-year mandate of Parliament and the executive has expired without the selection – or…
Pakistan’s angry political culture
THE political culture of a country always evolves. But not necessarily in a positive direction. As elsewhere in the world, politics in Pakistan has long had unseemly dimensions. Political leaders…
Tractors at the gate
THE Indian farmers have been protesting for months now in Delhi’s vicinity against legislation they view as anti-farmer and detrimental to the country’s agriculture. The protest and the Indian government’s…
Reforms needed to create a clean, honest political system
The real authority to command respect of people and society is moral authority. History tells us that people did not have temporal power but they ruled the hearts and minds…
Political’ versus ‘liberal’ capitalism
Pakistan’s economy has always remained in a state of confusion. Except for the first decade or so when we went for import substitution our attempts to set our economy on…
Apolitical youth
DESPITE the economy, geopolitics, the climate — despite it all — Pakistan’s major cities are abuzz. There are theatre, food, literary, and film festivals. Art biennales and gallery openings. New…
Political economy of the ME policy
It was agreements and protocols galore – eight to be precise – during the high-profile visit of Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman (MBS), the first in line to the Saudi…
The age of political essentialism
One would have thought the divisive political discourse that prevailed before Election 2018 would gradually phase out after the polls. But the polarisation between the supporters and opponents of the…
