by Faraz Saeed in Daily Times, Dec 14, 2020Pakistan’s political landscape has become an echo chamber of self-serving political charlatans and pseudo-visionaries who promise glorious future to the masses- when not in power. Every political party in the country has become a flag bearer of revolution- a word so ubiquitous that it seems like it has lost all meaning. But, what piques with the rationality is the call for revolution after every election; by a…
Posts published in “Pak Media comment”
by Amjad Mahmood in Dawn, 14 Dec 2020• Fazl declares ‘rigged system’ unsustainable• Bilawal says people’s mandate not behind PTI govt• Nawaz reaffirms stand on resignations• Maryam says Punjab will act as real brother instead of big brother LAHORE: The 11-party opposition Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) alliance held its much-hyped power show at Minar-i-Pakistan on Sunday with its convener Maulana Fazlur Rehman asking the establishment to move aside from the way of the masses or…
It is disgusting to see hoodlums vandalize the statue of Raja Ranjeet Singh in the Royal Palace next to his grave. Ranjeet was a son of Punjab, a true legend and an undisputable ruler of the area in the early 1990s. He not only singlehandedly crushed all foreign invaders and their heirs, English and Afghan put together, but also kept them off the far edges of Punjab of that time. The damage that this dastardly…
Despite differences both old and new, the PPP and PML(N) were never united in recent history as strongly as they are now. On Friday, PPP chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari visited Jati Umra to meet the PML(N) leadership and held a joint presser along with PML(N) Vice President Maryam Nawaz. While the PPP Central Executive Committee is yet to take a decision of the issue of resignations, Mr Bilawal Zardari maintained that there would be no…
The writer is a social activist who is the National Coordinator for Pattan Development Organisation.Like in the past the opposition parties are still part of the system. Despite that, past opposition parties were always coerced and their leaders jailed. In retaliation, they would hold protest rallies and conspired with the establishment to overthrow the incumbent. And succeed. What appears to have changed now is, that unholy equation. In this regard, Maulana Fazlur Rahman’s statement is…
IF there were ever a time for politics to take a back seat for the greater public good, it is now. The Covid-19 situation in Pakistan is getting more worrisome by the day, yet huge gatherings — particularly those staged by the opposition PDM — continue in full force. The stark, terrifying picture of the pandemic and its effects on the country should not be lost on anyone; according to the NCOC’s figures yesterday, Punjab…
The writer is Dawn’s resident editor in Lahore.THE psychological attack by the opposition on the Imran Khan government is effective. The trickle of resignations in the hands of the aspiring senders, even if not in the mail yet, represent a threat. It’s like the tactic they employ inside torture cells, each drop creating its own telling ripple in the bucket, with the intense audience looking for it to fill up and the contents to spill…
by Rizwan Ghilzai in The Express Tribune, Dec 11th, 2020.ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan is likely to appoint Finance Adviser Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh, Commerce Adviser Razak Dawood and Special Assistant to the PM on National Health Services Dr Faisal Sultan as federal ministers for six months in the wake of an Islamabad High Court ruling that unelected aides to the PM could not head government committees. The premier has consulted with his legal team…
In a critical letter to the PM late last this week, Asia Internet Coalition (AIC) voiced the concerns of major technology companies regarding the new social media rules, titled Removal and Blocking of Unlawful Online Content Rules 2020, implemented in the country. Given the fact that they are some of the biggest stakeholders in the matter, their demand for greater inclusion in the decision-making process is justified. It is imperative that the government accommodates their…
The government and the PDM are in no mood to sit down and talk. Well, their stated positions indicate so. The Prime Minister sounds confident that no amount of agitation can unsettle his position, let alone dislodge him from power. Maryam Nawaz, on the other hand, is braced for ‘aar ya paar’ i.e. ‘do or die’ — a line of action that Fazlur Rehman had decided pretty earlier. Free from the coronavirus, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari…
Slowing down democracy: Editorial in Dawn, December 14th, 2020
FOR democracy to work in any country, elections must be free, fair and held within the constitutionally stipulated time frame. This, unfortunately, has not been the case in Pakistan, where frequent military interventions have overthrown civilian governments adding to democracy’s slowdown, even regression. Today, too, with the PDM gunning for the PTI-led administration’s ouster, the root cause of the crisis is the perceived lack of legitimacy of the polls and the opposition’s refusal to accept…