Farrukh Khan Pitafi Whenever a political group relies too much on the media for any policy decision, it often ignores the inherent flaw in the plan, that of mortal weaknesses and the interests of businesses owning any particular media outlet The research methodology of the Pakistani political elite remains woefully flawed. Consequently every research effort yields queer dividends in the shape of further exacerbated crises. It takes no rocket scientist to study and follow the examples of established democracies where opposition parties form shadow governments and take up the tedious task of oversight and preparing for the day when they … Continue reading Back to the basics ?

Anderson Cooper Small waves, one after the other, lap the shore. Two Sri Lankan villagers walk along the water’s edge, searching for bodies washed up by the tide. They come every morning, leave without answers. Some days they find nothing. Today there is a torn shoe and a piece of broken fence. I am standing in a pile of rubble. Beneath me the ground seems to move, twisting and turning in on itself. It takes a moment for my eyes to adjust. The ground is not moving at all. There are maggots, thousands of them. Writhing, squirming, they feast on … Continue reading Washed away!

Miranda Husain We must recognise that here, in Pakistan, patriarchy is not always the sole subjugator of women. At times, those very non-governmental organisations that profess to promote the safeguarding of women’s human rights are party to their servitude Pakistani parliamentarians have shown us once again just how quick off the mark they are when it comes to introducing legal frameworks to safeguard women’s human rights. A mere seven years after the Punjab Assembly unanimously passed a resolution to bring acid crimes under the legal purview of attempted murder, we have the Acid Control and Acid Prevention Bill 2010 under … Continue reading Supporting the anti-acid bill, not NGOs or Mullahs

Syed Talat Hussain Issuing notifications contrary to the chief justice’s advice was always going to be a strategic disaster, dwarfing Kargil’s heights of folly. And that was exactly how it unfolded (Till the writing of these lines the government had not withdrawn the contested notifications for the appointment of Justice Saqib Nisar as Acting Chief Justice of the Lahore High Court and Justice Khwaja Sharif as a judge of the Supreme Court. The article assumes that the government would have remedied the situation before the Supreme Court starts its proceedings on the case today.) Three pictures in Tuesday’s newspapers were … Continue reading A worrying contrast

dawn Three suspects in the killing of Hamas militant, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh are shown in this CCTV handout from Dubai police, February 15, 2010. — Reuters World Most Hamas police applicants only want jobs Most Hamas police applicants only want jobs JERUSALEM: The quiet assassination of a Hamas commander gets unexpectedly messy. Exposed and forced to atone before furious allies, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu orders the spymaster responsible to fall on his sword. That was in 1997, when the Mossad director resigned after his men botched the poisoning of Khaled Meshaal in Jordan. Now premier a second time, Netanyahu faces … Continue reading After Dubai, Israelis question Mossad methods

By Amir Wasim dawn “Both the PPP and the PML-N should resist the temptation to again use the bureaucracy for short-term political ends, which undermined its functioning,” the report suggests.—File photo Front Page ADB finds rental power deals faulty ADB finds rental power deals faulty ISLAMABAD: The eight-year military rule of Gen (retd) Pervez Musharraf left behind a “demoralised and inefficient bureaucracy” that was used to ensure regime survival and “if deteriorating civil service is not urgently repaired, public disillusionment and resentment can be used by the military to justify another spell of authoritarian rule” in Pakistan, says a report … Continue reading “Corruption in Pakistan ‘will’ invite another coup”

Dawn A Policeman in plain cloth showcase a handcuffed and blindfolded suspected militant to the media in Karachi.—Reuters Editorial Mullah Baradar’s capture Mullah Baradar’s capture KARACHI: The arrest of a top Taliban commander in Pakistan highlights the militant nexus in Karachi, where crime bankrolls violence and the teeming metropolis offers the perfect hiding place. Karachi, home to 16 million people, has two sea ports which are a gateway to the world and transit hub for Nato supplies heading to the war effort in neighbouring Afghanistan. For decades Karachi has been connected with the criminal underworld and since the September 11, 2001 … Continue reading Mullahs in Karachi – Taliban arrest spotlights militant nexus in Karachi

By I.A. Rehman PM Gilani talks with Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry during their meeting in Islamabad.—AP Influential intermediaries have succeeded in easing the confrontation between the executive and the judicary that the president’s utterly inept advisers had created. But the debate on the procedure for the appointment of judges will continue to cause crises till a rational solution is found. The present constitutional position regarding the appointment of judges is quite clear. A Supreme Court judge is appointed by the president under Article 177 of the constitution after consultation with the chief justice of Pakistan. For the appointment of a judge … Continue reading Self-defeating exercises that burn Pakistan

By Jawed Naqvi Bal Thackeray should watch MNIK. He will change his mind about it, says Jawed Naqvi.—Photo by Reuters There are many excellent reasons for young hearts to seek love outside their religious confines. That is what sages like Bulley Shah are believed to have encouraged. In Delhi, more than half the journalists — Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs — I know have married someone not of their religion and I think that is a great cosmopolitan attribute to flaunt. Unlike the couples one is familiar with, there are those men — usually Muslim men — who would marry their sweethearts … Continue reading Hindu Mullahs – Autism, religion and conversion

For the briefest of moments, again within the ambit of power politics, Citizen Pervez Musharraf told (two) jokes, set out his stall to succeed Asif Zardari, and proposed a Shaggy reading of Pakistani history: It Wasn’t Me. All this while speaking at Chatham House and the Georgian St James’s townhouse where once lived Gladstone and Pitt the Elder. It is one of a pair of engagements, for a general on a visitor’s visa whose London residence was meant to be short. Next Tuesday, he follows his July parliamentary appearance in the House of Commons with a sequel, in the Lords, … Continue reading It wasn’t me says Musharraf!