by Rameez Khan in the Express Tribune, Dec 5, 2020LAHORE: The final and only workable option left with the 11-party opposition alliance – the Pakistan Democratic Movement – to advance their objective of overthrowing the incumbent government is to resign from the assemblies en masse, a senior PML-N leader said, ruling out the possibility of a much talked about PTI-style long march. However, the PDM has not yet made an official statement on the option…
Posts published in “Pak Media comment”
ASSISTANT Sub Inspector Akhir Zaman was killed in an ambush in Jhandokhel, Bannu district, on Wednesday. It didn’t take his colleagues too long to connect his murder to his last assignment even though later on other motives also came under discussion. The policeman was returning after a day’s security duty with polio workers. For a number of years now, the work of polio teams has been among the most hazardous in the country. The frequency…
Op -ed by Mohammad Ali Babakhel in Dawn, Dec 5, 2020The writer is author of Pakistan: In Between Extremism and Peace.CAN we attribute the apparent decline in terrorism in 2020 to the erosion of extremist ideologies or to the militants’ physical and territorial losses? Successful intelligence-based operations have either eliminated hardened terrorists or pushed them across the border. The Afghan peace talks, Covid-19 and influx of militants from other conflict zones to Afghanistan have all…
The United Nations General Assembly recently adopted a resolution calling for the promotion of interreligious and intercultural dialogue. Pakistan co-sponsored the resolution with the Philippines. Pakistani Ambassador Munir Akram urged all countries to fight Islamophobia as he introduced the resolution. The draft responds to the concerns of most countries, he said before its passage. The resolution also welcomes the opening of the Kartarpur Corridor and appreciates India and Pakistan’s agreement to allow visa-free access to…
by Raza Habib Raja in the Express Tribune blogs, Dec 5, 2020The writer is a PhD candidate in Pol Science at the Maxwell School of Public Affairs, Syracuse University.At the outset I would like to issue a clarification that I am not an Ahmadi. The reason as to why I am forced to do this is that since I have penned several articles in support of the Ahmadi community the common ‘allegation’ I have read…
The writer is an Islamabad-based columnist.Khadim Hussain Rizvi, who recently passed away, had risen to prominence in a short period on the politico-religious landscape of Pakistan. His reputation rested on two things: the ability to agitate on the highly sensitive issue of blasphemy so successfully as to bring the government on its knees; and speaking with a sense of no-holds-barred and brutally stigmatizing anyone – including the clergy – who dared to question his tactics.…
It is the logical end to an illogical act to meet. Quite aptly, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) Friday asked the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) as to what is the motive behind the latest pack of laws against individual liberties on social media, as petitioned by the Pakistan Bar Council (PBC). The PBC petition is “Removal and Blocking of Unlawful Online Content (Procedure, Oversight and Safeguards) Rules 2020”. The apex lawyers’ body refreshed the fears…
Dr Waqar Masud, the newly appointed Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on Revenue believes that he has “scope of 7.4m new potential filers.” Dr Waqar’s numbers of these potential filers come from the data that the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has gathered from various sources. It is excellent that the FBR officials have identified such a large number of potential tax evaders with multi-million dollar transactions. The revenue collection authority must handle…
Despite the many promises made by the PTI, before coming to power, that it would retain all national assets such as giant corporations like Pakistan Steel Mills and PIA under the wings of the government and keep them as assets for the nation, this plan has changed. Before the 2018 election, and after it, Prime Minister Imran Khan and Asad Umar, who was the finance minister at that time, had said they planned to follow…
The writer is a member of staff.Prime Minister Imran Khan probably did not intend to shed the light he did on the operations of the Intelligence Bureau or the Inter-Services Intelligence when he said that “The ISI and IB know whatever I do and whoever I talk to on telephone.” However, he did, telling the intelligence communities of the world that these organisations were dealing with domestic politics, in addition to, or to the exclusion…
Political economy of rigging :Op-ed
by Sarwar Bari in the Express Tribune, Dec 5, 2020The writer is a social activist who is the National Coordinator for Pattan Development Organisation.In the wake of recent Gilgit-Baltistan general elections, many television channels wanted me to comment on its fairness. I had to refuse as I was not involved in any form of observation. However, as the results started to surface and the losers cried foul, I was approached again. Now they wanted to…