Allying with tax evaders
"Moralists should address their sermons to the legislators, and not to individuals, because it is in the order of possible things that a virtuous and enlightened man may have the…
Victims and victimhood
Salman Rushdie, a much-feted victim of intolerance, was vigorously promoting his memoir recently when I asked a friend in London to send me a copy of The Rushdie Letters. It…
Dead or disappeared
When President Asif Ali Zardari signed into law the Actions (in Aid of Civil Power) Regulation, 2011, almost nobody noticed. Then, as now, Pakistan was in the midst of its…
A BJP-driven U-turn?
Looking at the U-turn in Indo-Pak relations, January seems a strange month. The change perplexed everyone, because throughout 2012, a perception was built that these belligerent neighbours had finally accepted…
Weak democratic process
It is a season of defections and of new alliances as the political parties gear up for the coming elections. Horse-trading is the name of the game and political loyalties…
The passion of a scientist
Today is the birthday of a man to whom the world is hugely indebted for his contribution to science and for establishing leading institutions for scientific development. He also negotiated…
Our Greek tragedy
In 399 BC, Socrates stood before a jury of 500 Athenians his peers accused of “refusing to recognise the gods recognised by the state” and “corrupting the youth.” The penalty…
Let’s keep our powder dry
“If they want peace” said Napoleon Bonaparte to the Russian Czar Alexander, “they should avoid the pinpricks that precede canon balls”. He may as well have been addressing Pakistan and…
Enter through the narrow gate
“The sun came up upon the left, out of the sea came he! And he shone bright, and on the right went down into the sea.” Thus began the southward…
Our informal economy
According to the growth diagnostics framework I discussed in one of my previous articles, high taxation is one of the potential candidates for becoming a binding constraint to economic growth…
