This writer is a senior foreign affairs correspondent at The Express TribuneLet’s call spade a spade. No elected government in Pakistan enjoyed as much support from the establishment and other organs of the state as the current dispensation, led by Prime Minister Imran Khan has. The idea to back the cricketer-turned politician was clear: people or the state needed a break from the likes of Sharifs, Bhuttos and Zardaris who in view of the powers-that-be…
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The writer is a former secretary, Law & Justice Commission of Pakistan.Capitalising on its reforms in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the PTI came into government promising major reforms to improve the quality of governance, including civil service, justice, police, local government. But after three years, at the helm of the federal, Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan governments, reforms have stalled. It is unclear whether this is due to lack of will, not knowing what or not knowing…
The writer is a freelance columnistBack in 2018, I had written that the status quo elite capturing mafia of kleptocrats and plutocrats headed by the Houses of Sharifs and Bhuttos/ Zardari will fight tooth and nail to destroy every attempt to reform Pakistan, with Imran being the most visible symbol of that change.Three years down, one can see how strong, and powerful this mafia still is.A mafia that is a combination of corrupt politicians, bureaucracy,…
PAKISTAN continues to face imposing internal and external challenges. But the ability to address them is being jeopardised by several factors — lack of national unity, intensely polarised politics, institutional disharmony, and absence of political will to undertake long postponed, fundamental economic reforms. Sharply polarised politics have become a familiar aspect of the country’s political landscape. With government-opposition tensions showing no sign of abating, a non-consensual democracy is in operation. Unilateral, go-it-alone governance seems to…
The writer is presently working as the Director of the Centre for Aerospace and Security Studies (CASS).While the brighter side of the information revolution facilitated the human race in connecting more easily and conducting their businesses far more conveniently, the darker side of this revolution has yet to be fully understood. Interventions into the private lives of each person through data monitoring, data collection, data hacking, and using the same against them is one such…
This writer is a senior foreign affairs correspondent at The Express TribuneLet’s call spade a spade. No elected government in Pakistan enjoyed as much support from the establishment and other organs of the state as the current dispensation, led by Prime Minister Imran Khan has. The idea to back the cricketer-turned politician was clear: people or the state needed a break from the likes of Sharifs, Bhuttos and Zardaris who in view of the powers-that-be…
What’s the difference between civilian supremacy and a civilian supremacist? A civilian supremacist is a politician who believes civilian supremacy is only served when they assert power but not when other civilians do it. For the last three years, the collective opposition has been battering Imran Khan with a narrative around giving up civilian control in key policy areas. And now that Imran Khan is asserting civilian control on the most sensitive of appointments, the…
The writer is a security analyst.WHILE at the moment it is difficult to predict the impact the Afghan Taliban government will have on the relationship between state and society in Pakistan, there are some important facts to consider. When a parliamentary committee rejected the anti-forced conversion bill, which had also been opposed by the Ministry of Religious Affairs, it had nothing to do with the Afghan Taliban but Pakistan’s own majoritarian mentality that has largely…
The Removal and Blocking of Unlawful Online Content Rules of 2021, introduced by the Ministry of Information Technology, have disclosed the exact degree to which content producers and internet users are disadvantaged in Pakistan. The PTA seems to have arbitrarily amassed more power over what is published on social media platforms and websites, resulting in a policed internet space that threatens to squash anything deemed ‘criminal’ or ‘threatening’. If protection is the objective, then there…
The writer is an Islamabad-based TV journalist.Let’s face it. There is no comparison between the US and Afghanistan in terms of state power. America remains the most powerful country on the planet, Afghanistan one of the weakest ones. In Afghanistan’s defence, you can advance only one argument. That it still stands. That it has not lost any territory to another country during some of its weakest moments. Sovereignty often, but not territory. But this piece…
MQM harps on the same string – : Op-ed by M Alam Brohi in Daily Times, Oct 19th, 2021.
The author was a member of the Foreign Service of Pakistan .The Sindhi language Bill passed by the Sindh Assembly in July 1972 neither posed any threat to Urdu nor did it aim to expel it from the province. The Bill just restored the status of the Sindhi language in judicial courts, provincial, district and local government offices without barring the simultaneous use of Urdu. Sindhi had enjoyed this status along with Persian before the…