by Nabeel Anwar Dhakku in Dawn, December 27th, 2020CHAKWAL: Lashing out at the opposition parties, Prime Minister Imran Khan has accused the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) of propagating Indian agenda by launching a malicious campaign against the Pakistan Army. Addressing a ceremony here on Saturday, he said this was for the first time that Pakistan’s opposition was targeting the army in this way. “General Musharraf used to be criticised because he had assumed a political…
Posts published in “Pak Media comment”
by Ariba Shahid in PT Profit, Dec 26, 2020The author is a business journalist at the publicationThe winter in Pakistan is short, and the few pleasant weeks at the end of February and the beginning of March mark the small window of spring that most parts of the country receive. But spring does not just bring flowers, vacations and a small period of respite before the sun properly descends and the unforgiving summer hits. It…
The writer is president of the Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development And Transparency.TWO extraordinary things happened on Dec 22 — in the context of chasing elusive good governance in Pakistan. Prime Minister Imran Khan presided over a special ceremony at the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) to sign performance agreements with members of his federal cabinet for the year 2020-21. Given the high degree of emphasis which Imran Khan, his party and the scores of government…
There seems to be some confusion between the PML-N and the PPP, the two parties which make up the main bulk of the PDM, the opposition movement which has vowed to oust the government by next year. The confusion seems to be over whether the long march to Islamabad planned for February will go ahead and if it will, whether it is to end in a sit-in or in the resignation of legislators. The current…
The government had only barely patched up some of the cracks that had appeared in the Punjab coalition government and things are already falling apart in the centre. The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) is now threatening street protests because the government just went back on one of its core promises made to the party when they first shook hands and gone ahead and approved the controversial National Census-2017. Fed up because half the electoral cycle…
PTI and MQM had always been tenacious sort of allies—bound together by convenience more so than party principles. This is starting to show more and more as the government enters its third year, as MQM starts to publicly air more of its differences with the ruling party. The difference between the PTI and MQM over the 2017 Census now threatens to spill-over to the streets as MQM-P leader Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui has said that the…
The Ministry of Finance and the finance minister have expressed confidence that the economy – hit by a balance of payments crisis, as well as the Covid pandemic – may be recovering. To prove his point, Finance Minister Hafeez Sheikh has pointed to the growth in the current account and the surplus seen in it as well as an improvement in manufacturing and the growth of larger manufacturing units over the past year. This obviously…
The recent report in an international publication regarding two Pakistani factories’—working to supply finished textile products to international brands—workers making less than minimum wage in Faisalabad is not a revelation at all. We know that millions working in Pakistan’s garment industry suffer abuse. Many owners of mills and factories violate their labour rights with impunity. The legal framework to protect the rights of the workers is weaker in Pakistan. The officials have to accept the…
ONE indicator of the state Pakistan’s justice system is in is the figure of cases pending adjudication in the country. In a recent meeting of the National Judicial (Policy Making) Committee, Supreme Court Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed highlighted this issue, calling upon the high courts to ensure the timely disposal of cases. The fact is that the backlog is massive, particularly in the lower courts. As per one figure, over 377,000 cases are pending decisions…
Over three years after the last national census exercise – overall sixth in the country’s history – was completed, the government has finally approved its results and it has now been decided that the matter will be sent to the Council of Common Interests to get the final nod from the provinces to publish the results. Moreover, the federal cabinet has recommended carrying out the exercise every three years for greater accuracy of data. The…
Police’s lack of restraint: edit in The Express Tribune, Dec 27, 2020
The police are allowed to carry firearms for the benefit of society, but sometimes they use guns with abandon killing innocent citizens. Dolphin Squad of the Punjab Police has acquired notoriety for the lack of restraint as it has killed several people in what its personnel claimed encounters. If someone is killed by the police, they claim that the killing took place in an encounter. However, the claim of encounter becomes doubtful as the dead…