To obtain power politicians tend to make a lot of promises. Most of them can hardly be kept, in a feudal society populism is simply a means to an end. A gullible populace can be faulted however for being taken for a ride again and again, and mostly by the same lot. For all its…
Smashing more than half a dozen vehicles parked around the Minhaj ul Quran Secretariat on June 17 in Model Town Lahore under the rather benign patronage of the Punjab Police, the man who perpetrated the vandalism refuses to go away from the public eye. Ahsan Rana’s blog says that with 10,000 plus downloads of a…
Most politicians can be economical with the truth even at the best times. With Khursheed Shah shedding crocodile tears in the Joint Session of the National Assembly about the PM buckling under pressure from the Army and the resultant threat to “democracy”, Mian Sahib crossed the failsafe line that an awakened public is now increasingly…
A man starts yelling “fire, fire” in a movie theatre, the stampede towards the exits results in injuries (even deaths) among the cinemagoers. Restraining or punishing the man would technically violate his freedom of speech, allowing such “freedom” would result in injuries and deaths to innocent bystanders, what should be the logical course of justice?…
The Imran Khan and Tahir ul Qadri show, or as my friend Ejaz Haider puts it, the “Lucky Irani Circus”, finally made it to where they wanted to be in the first place and where the Mian Nawaz Sharif regime did not want them at any time, at the “D Square” in front of Parliament….
Historically progressive, Pakistan’s bourgeoisie has compromised with imperialism and feudal/tribal elements, with almost all political parties in Pakistan run like feudal estates. The basic ingredient of any functioning democracy, the present form of elections has reduced Parliament to a mere ritual-like exercise with those elected considering power a free licence to loot, plunder and oppress…
The bankruptcy of our policies has put us under pressure internationally from disparate forces with vested interest. Domestically this only force-multiplies the effect of the constant attack by the forces of evil, their appetite for loot and plunder not yet satiated after more than half a century. The recent set of political, economic and diplomatic…
Dear Readers, No one can argue that many things are wrong in Pakistan but this is not unique to this country. One only has to look around to see the problems being faced by countries across the world but what is unique to Pakistan is that many of the problems it faces are of its…
Dear Readers, We live in on age in which on increasing number of nations are embracing democracy as a system of government. In some cases the political landscape of many nations has been characterized by processes, at times arduous, of democratization or struggle for democracy. After more than six decades of achieving independence, Pakistan continues…
The bitter home truth about our foreign policy is that none of the major political parties can deny the opening narrative of PML(N)’s Manifesto for the 2013 election, “Pakistan today is at war within, while isolated abroad. Its independence and sovereignty stand compromised, its economic weaknesses are forcing us to go begging bowl in hand,…
