During the past two-and-a-half years that it has been in power, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has dropped catches and bowled no-balls. But now it has been clean bowled in Daska. And this must have a lot of bearing on the quality of Imran Khan’s leadership and its promise to cleanse the grubby stable of Pakistan’s politics. Because the momentous decision of the Election Commission of Pakistan to void the by-election in NA-75 and to order…
Posts published in “Pak Media comment”
The recent by election in NA-75 Daska was an eyeopener for everyone. The optics revealed a weak electoral system in Pakistan where political entities tried to deliberately affect the voter turnout, and where the polling staff were caught carrying bags containing votes. In what can easily be described as a first, the polling staff of 20 polling stations went missing for a few hours as well. This was highlighted by the PML-N and the next…
THE fears of sceptical Pakistanis are easily allayed, with the latest prime example being the stance taken by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) in the presidential reference hearings before the Supreme Court and its decision over the alleged rigging by the governing PTI in NA-75. Almost all analysts, this columnist included, described the ECP stand as a watershed moment in the country’s history. Some went as far as to make optimistic predictions of credible…
The Nation, Feb 27, 2021The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), in its plenary meeting decided to retain Pakistan on the grey list. The case of Pakistan will be reassessed next at the extraordinary plenary session in June this year. This was expected; sources from within the PM house claim that the reason for the lack of a diplomatic offensive in anticipation of the review stemmed from the knowledge that June would bring about our removal…
Defence ministers from NATO member states held an important meeting last week — the first since Joe Biden assumed power in the US. The conference was significant because during Trump’s presidency, the US-NATO relations had been strained as the former president was not willing to continue to bear the burden of financing military campaigns around the world. One of the important issues that the conference was deliberating upon was the withdrawal of foreign forces from…
Edit in Dawn: HAD people not lost their lives, the ham-fisted attempt at rigging the Daska by-election on Feb 19 could have been described as a parody. In fact, what transpired that day was a shocking display of the extent to which local and provincial administrations were willing to go to corrupt the process. It is therefore fitting that the Election Commission of Pakistan has declared the by-election null and void. In its detailed order…
WHEN I returned from the UN in 2010 Pakistan was being misgoverned by the PPP. This culminated in the national humiliation of the US assault on Abbottabad. This was soon followed by PML-N misgovernance which culminated in the national embarrassment of the Panama revelations and the politically tainted judicial process of removing the prime minister. The PML-N government was followed by the PTI and an untested and therefore unsullied prime minister. Tragically, the plague of…
Where can one find a country that is the fifth most populous state in the world, boasts to be a nuclear power, claims to have an impregnable defence but has an economy—which underpins a nation’s strength—in tatters and owes billions of dollars in debt to foreign nations, banks, and institutions? Where can one find a country with a population of about 222 million, but has only a few hundred thousand registered income taxpayers? Where can…
As the government employees took to Islamabad’s streets earlier this month they were met with the force of the law enforcement agencies, bringing to light the state’s autocratic tendencies. The federal government employees launched the protest in the capital to demand raise in their monthly wages. The employees maintained they deserved a 40% increase in the salaries and were protesting under the umbrella of All Government Employees Grand Alliance. They gathered at the Constitution Avenue…
THE military’s revelation this week about the escape of former TTP spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan has given rise to more questions about an incident that was already steeped in mystery. It has now been confirmed by the army that Ehsan escaped from its custody a year ago — a development that had been largely met with conspicuous silence, until now, from both the government and security establishment. The military’s official disclosure of action against those responsible…
Daska and beyond:: op-ed
Daska looked like a war zone on the polling day. “It was like a scene from an Indian movie. Bullets were being shot in random directions on the streets and there was no one to stop it. It had never been like this here, ever,” Abid Mehdi, a local journalist, told The News on Sunday. Mehdi works for a national newspaper. Eyewitness accounts of by election in Daska, NA-75, are alarming. Two polling agents lost…