The best government
If the federal law minister is to be taken at his word, the Swiss authorities are not going to reopen money laundering cases against President Zardari. This may be either…
Before disaster strikes
Another high-profile, low-output meeting on Afghanistan has been held. On February 3-4 Prime Minister David Cameron met the presidents of Afghanistan and Pakistan at Chequers, his country residence, for trilateral…
Dealing with the devil
If the loss of a Pakistani life is the ultimate damage inflicted upon this country, then the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has been far more devastating than any other enemy of…
Too many cooks
It has been too much of Kargil in the last few weeks, though I still have a column to wrap up about what has been an important revisit triggered by…
Sectarian threat to polls
The brutal killing of a leading lawyer in Peshawar last Friday, apparently for his belief, should awaken everyone who wields any authority in Pakistan to the dangerous consequences of the…
A self-defeating advice
Former premier Nawaz Sharif has asked the government to hold "serious, meaningful and result-oriented" talks with the Al-Qaeda-inspired local Taliban militants to bring peace in the country. A review of…
Palestinians eye Israeli election with trepidation
Surveying a deep frozen Middle East peace process - to say nothing of the likely re-election of conservative Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu - Palestinians are viewing the upcoming Israeli…
Endemic corruption
Pakistan is going through an immensely difficult era. Is it because of democracy? Is it because of the legacy that Musharraf left behind? Whatever the diagnosis the fact is that…
New bailout package
The government, at the fag end of its tenure, has reportedly invited International Monetary Fund (IMF) for negotiating a three-year bailout programme. It is a rather surprising move, especially its…
Republic of the never-ending rivers
If any verse fits Pakistan’s condition permanently – could almost be its national slogan – it is Munir Niazi’s cry of despair: Ik aur darya ka saamna tha Munir mujhko,…
