Publishing scam
As an Internet user you would have experienced the Nigerian lottery scam. But you may not have heard of the academic scam of the African Journal of Business Management (AJBM)…
Turkey’s Erdogan decade
Not long ago, Turkey was a security state where the establishment controlled policy through a shadow government. A clandestine network of military officers and their civilian proxies exercised utmost ‘legitimacy’…
Zardari’s instinct for survival
Mr Asif Ali Zardari has the knack of springing surprises on friends and foes, admirers and detractors alike. His return home from Dubai after medical treatment is as dramatic as…
Pakistani politicians
Most Pakistani politicians suffer from verbal diarrhoea: words fall from their mouths without any control. As a result of this widespread disease, one can never believe in what they say.…
Pakistan & the IMF
By this time, few people in the country are under the illusion that Pakistan is not sleepwalking its way back to the IMF. Policy inaction spread over several years has…
The sectarian ghoul in Gilgit
The region of Gilgit-Baltistan made news this year not for its scenic beauty, but for sectarianism in the form of brutal murders and target killings. Historically, the region has been…
Threatened by whom?
The true threat of martial law is when it does not seem a threat but a relief. Plots against parliamentary democracy are probably superfluous: the elected representatives are well on…
Wikileaks and diplomacy
Contrary to how our conspiracy theorists demonise Wikileaks, it is neither a conspiracy to target Pakistan or to spread disarray in the Muslim world. Nor is it a venom-secreting hydra-headed…
Parliament’s paradox
On April 16 Afghanistan was rocked once again by well orchestrated and coordinated multiple strikes by the Taliban, in an operation termed “Spring Offensive.” The same day, in what is…
Up to our necks
But do you think the fire-breathing, attitude-striking, ghairat brigade (brigades actually, for many more have sprouted in the week that the Torkham border remained closed to Nato/Isaf supplies) will ever…
