Through the glass ceiling
How much anger do you need to smash a glass ceiling? A glass ceiling became the symbol of discrimination during the struggle for women’s rights in western democracies. By the…
Indifference to war
Even confirmed democracies recognise wars as a phenomenon that upsets the schedule of events. There was no election in Britain for 10 long years (1935-45). A general election was held…
Our weakest link
While we continue to vie for representative democratic governance, the institution meant to be the repository and emblem of democracy is turning out to be our weakest link. In most…
Owning our institutions
There is a time to criticise the government. And then there is a time to stand firmly behind it. This principle is well-entrenched in most long-standing democracies but is something…
A deadly symbiosis
With corruption rife in the upper echelons of the hierarchy in both Pakistan and Afghanistan, the so-called “democracies” existing therein are counterproductive to the war effort against the Taliban who…
Visiting Bangladesh
Shrugging off its traditional reliance for foreign-exchange earnings on jute goods and tea, Bangladesh has economically made giant strides, with home remittances and garment manufacturing giving momentum to a whole…
Of born leaders and followers
It’s hard not to see eye to eye with the federal information minister when he says that his boss Bilawal Bhutto is a born leader. The point of disagreement may,…
Truth and politicians
“Dictators are falling. Democracies are failing. A curious coincidence? Or is it, perhaps, a sign that something fundamental has changed in the grain of human history. I believe so. How…
Outsourcing state terror
They are the world’s most powerful and largest democracies, respectively, but the United States and India have something most undemocratic in common. They both outsource means to kill, torture and…
Misplaced optimism
In developing democracies such as Pakistan, there is a tendency for the incumbent government to camouflage its socio-economic failures with a sense of artificial optimism aimed at deluding the masses…
