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…
With eyes wide shut
We have become accustomed to looking at the world around us with our eyes shut - believing only what we want to want to, choosing the images we want to…
Ground zero
A version of this essay was published exactly four years ago. The introduction has been updated and some details altered in the text. But the message remains the same: nuclear…
Positive politics
Politics sits at the apex of a nation-state. It links the society to the state and acts as the supreme authority safeguarding the interests of both. A nation-state prospers and…
Factory inspections – III
During the last two decades or so, there has been a breakthrough from the traditional form of industry in Pakistan. The development of metallurgical industry, heavy engineering industries, chemical process…
Feeble but welcome signs
Two protests of different kinds over an eight-day period helped shape the political landscape in the country in no uncertain terms. That was the past week. After the Jan 10…
Dangerous conflation
The killing of MQM MPA Manzar Imam last week is the latest sign of the increasing overlap between sectarian violence and politics. The Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility for the…
The gathering storm?
The record 125 deaths on January 10, (90 in Quetta alone) caused by bomb blasts and targeted killings, countrywide protests thereafter, and demands for Army takeover of Quetta, magnified the…
A chance beckons
Following the imposition of governor’s rule in Balochistan and the burial of the victims of the Quetta attacks, the sit-ins and protests that erupted across the country against the wanton…
March madness in January
Considered the usual month for political madness in Pakistan, March came early this year, the turmoil complicated by election-year factors. The obstacles of the federal and Punjab governments notwithstanding, the…
