Friendship with India
Just six months after independence, in a pictorial write-up on Pakistan, America’s Life magazine noted that the newly born nation of 70 million desperately needed India’s capital and industrial know-how…
Trapped?
It must have been a moment of distress for General (r) Pervez Musharraf, when a shoe was hurled at him in the premises of the Sindh High Court. Never before…
Agenda for the nation 2013 and beyond-II
What is the real nature and extent of the domestic crisis? Let me try to highlight some of its major dimensions. First and foremost, it is a 'crisis of legitimacy'.…
Khoso’s tasks
The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) is facing huge shortage in revenue collection despite resorting to all sorts of negative tactics and highhandedness, destroying the already fragile economy. The FBR…
Election Outlook-III: Musharraf: A spanner in the election works?
The question why former Pakistan's President and army chief Pervez Musharraf has abandoned best possible worldly comforts for the quagmire of country's politics largely remains unanswered despite his enthusiastic rhetoric…
Five long years
I have been writing on economic issues for almost four years. In each article, the growing weaknesses of Pakistan’s economy and policy inaction have been identified and suggestions made to…
Between shame and shamelessness
We have tumbled into and been tossed from one species of government to another. We have suffered a ‘brutal’ dictatorship and savored an ‘enlightened’ one. Tired of a ‘sham’ democracy…
Agenda for the nation: 2013 and beyond – I
The next government, which is expected to be in power sometime this year, shall have to formulate a national agenda for the next five years in the context of global,…
What is on offer on the economic front?
The manifestoes of the two major parties namely the PML (N) and the PPP have been released amidst much fanfare. One question uppermost in the minds of analysts is: given…
Are we that helpless?
"If you think of yourselves as helpless and ineffectual, it is certain that you will create a despotic government to be your master. The wise despot, therefore, maintains among his…
