DEMOCRACY has been in contention over the past fortnight or so. The honours so far have been claimed by both the disorganised democratic camp and the organised, well-oiled establishment. The duel began with the democrats’ success in freeing Nowshera, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, that has been controlled by the PTI since 2013, of its loyalty to the ruling party. The party patriarch was shocked and sacked the local commander, incidentally the defence minister’s brother, in accordance…
Posts published in “Pak Media comment”
Every chief has his day. Inside the Red Zone, the man of the moment is undoubtedly Pakistan’s chief election commissioner. Sikandar Sultan Raja is expected today to deliver what could arguably be the most important verdict of his tenure till date. He and his fellow members of the commission will decide the fate of the disputed NA-75 Daska election knowing full well that the nation’s eyes are on him. That’s a fairly heavy burden to…
EARLIER this month, a video went viral. Not the feel-good one everyone was recreating and partying to though. This was quite the opposite: a morbid reminder of state-sanctioned violence and how it continues unabated in the absence of any legal provisions outlawing torture. In the video, from Jan 31, personnel of the KP police can be seen assaulting three women accused of stealing. The video is from Swat and the women were accused of going…
The Janus-faced pseudo Afghanistan analyst community — local and foreign — is in overdrive telling all and sundry about the futility of peace-making with a treacherous Taliban. That the blood-thirsty Taliban did not keep their side of the deal and that the United States military presence is the panacea of all that afflicts Afghans and Afghanistan. And that the remaining contingent of 2,500 or so US troops would do, what over 150,000 strong ISAF/Nato forces,…
The Nation, Feb 24, 2021: According to the State Bank of Pakistan, there has been a decline in Pakistan’s Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) numbers. During the first seven months of the current fiscal year, from July to January, the FDI fell by 27 percent compared to the same period last year. Pakistan fetched FDI amounting to $1,145.3 million in this half of the financial year, compared to $1,577 million in the same period of the…
The police in Pakistan has been spending enormous time, energy and financial resources over efforts to improve its sagging image in the public through seminars and workshops. International and national NGOs, having their own axes to grind, participate in these activities under different banners such as ‘Police Awam Saath Saath’. Most of these programmes are held in expensive hotels and are attended mostly by the elite. The question is: where do the common people fit…
‘The toughest of all battles lies at home’ – aptly says a Pashtun proverb. Unfortunately, the fleeting consensus achieved during the last two decades on finding the genesis of terrorism and extremism ‘within’ is in danger of being lost. The country is facing a new wave of violence. As we were slowly coming out of mourning over the brutal beheading of Hazara Shia miners in Balochistan, the killings of five soldiers and as many women…
THE government’s conduct regarding its efforts to regulate ‘unlawful’ online content remains opaque and smacks of tokenism, notwithstanding attempts to appear otherwise at the prodding of the Islamabad High Court. On Jan 25, it promised the court it would consult with relevant stakeholders to revise the social media rules it had notified in January 2020 before the next hearing on Feb 26. To that end, a meeting was held in Islamabad on Friday during which…
“THIS time there will be no mistake.” These are the chilling words that led Twitter to ban an account reportedly belonging to Ehsanullah Ehsan, a leader and spokesperson for the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). The clampdown came after he threatened Malala Yousafzai, and she responded with a tweet asking how Ehsan escaped from state custody and was now at liberty to make such remarks (a spokesman for the prime minister said the account was fake; the…
The writer is a former chief secretary K-P and former ambassadorIn a senseless targeting of innocent citizens, a group of terrorists attacked and killed 11 coal miners and injured four in Mach, Balochistan, on January 3. The poor miners were picked up, taken away with their hands tied and were slaughtered in the nearby mountains. All belonged to the minority Hazara tribe — who mostly belong to the Shia sect. The killing sent shockwaves of…
Kabulov pushes for Afghan peace troika -op-ed
Zamir Kabulov, a high ranking career diplomat and Russia’s special envoy for Afghanistan, landed in Islamabad on February 19, 2020, as part of the efforts to kick-start the Afghan Peace Process, which seems to be lingering around for quite some time now. Before leaving Moscow, Kabulov told Russian news agency Sputnik that he expects the trip will get Islamabad’s backing for the meeting in Moscow to help expedite, what he termed as the delayed Afghan…