Conflicts and democracies
The recent game of death and destruction in Afghanistan has raised a number of questions for Pakistan, the region and the world. The clashes between Afghan forces and the Taliban…
Time to fix errant democracies
THEY can chop journalists into pieces in Saudi Arabia and pour acid on the remains to wipe out all traces of the crime. Should that prompt our struggling democracies to…
From empires to democracies
There are multiple reasons for the gradual failure of almost all state institutions in Pakistan. But the more alarming thing is the attitude of our society. One argument that is…
From empires to democracies: Part-I
The age of empires is gone, and empires have been replaced by ‘big powers’, which are mostly democracies. The simplest definition of democracy is: holding elections at certain intervals (four…
A tale of two ‘democracies’
We have justifiably taken pride in our march towards building representative institutions; developing systems that are a product of complex human experiences; and organising societies marked by moral, political and…
Residual democracies, wages of hate
Feed a monster and there is every danger of you ending up as its fodder. What makes the killing of yet another Indian techie in the US last week –…
Democracies in transition, and challenges they face
Democracy is often advocated as the only way forward for nations to flourish. It is certainly the best option available to guard against erosion of government legitimacy and yet it…
Good parliament, bad parliament
PARLIAMENTS serve different and often opposite purposes. They ply democracies. They ply autocracies. They work for the rich. They work for the toiling masses. The American parliament, Congress, made president…
A democratic reckoning
My father was an active member of the National Awami Party led by Khan Abdul Wali Khan, one of the most consequential political leaders in what was then West Pakistan.…
Sex, power and impunity
“Democracy does die in darkness”, Nancy Pelosi, the former speaker of the US House of Representatives and one of the most powerful figures in modern Democratic politics, warned on February…
