On Friday, in the midst of useless political frenzy concerning the upcoming PDM ‘power show’ in Multan, Rana Sanauallah (one of the closest confidants of Maryam Nawaz) was questioned about the possibility of delaying the planned ‘jalsa’, in light of unprecedented Covid-19 numbers. His response, televised live across all media channels, disclosed the deep malaise and hypocrisy of our partisan politics; he said ‘jo bhiqeemat ho, jalsa ho karrahayga’. No matter what the ‘cost’, PDM…
Posts published in “Pak Media comment”
The writer is a member of the faculty of contemporary studies at NDU Islamabad…….My story today is about our EIC and it starts from its chapters of Sindh and Punjab that we call provinces but much like Bengal in the 18th century they are the political strongholds of our EIC in this country. A stronghold from where much of the exploitation of the rest of the country took place. But before this story, I want…
by M Bilal Lakhani in The Express Tribune, Nov 29, 2020PDM is behaving like an angry toddler, smashing everything in its way, unclear about what it wants and making so much noise that the parents believe their best strategy is to just ignore the shouts and screams, while his energy fizzles out eventually. For example, at first, PDM thought the boys were the root of all evil in the country. Today, they want to talk…
The writer is resident editor of The News in PeshawarThe Peshawar public rally wasn’t and won’t be the only point of contention between the PTI government and the 11-party opposition alliance, PDM The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa tried, but failed to stop the Pakistan Democratic Movement from holding its public meeting in Peshawar on November 22. Warnings such as filing police cases against the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) leaders and organisers for violating…
The writer takes interest in social issuesDespite the wealth and resources it is blessed with, Pakistan lags behind in the race of development. A vibrant country with a population of over 22 million and a lot of potential and sufficient resources, Pakistan is a country whose economic growth is still in the budding stages even after a period of 73 years. This fortunate piece of land, however, ranks at 152 out of 189 countries on…
The government and the opposition in the form of the PDM, the alliance of 11 opposition parties, which has said it intends to bring down the government, are set for what seems to be a showdown. In fact, the showdown seems to have already begun, what with arrests and protests in Multan. The government has said it will not allow the latest PDM rally scheduled for November 30 in Multan to go ahead because of…
The writer is a development practitioner in PakistanRoss Douthat, while analysing the political history of alliances in the 20th century, observed that there are “plenty of examples from twentieth-century history where, out of fear of liberalism or Communism, religious conservatives made alliances with secular populists and nationalists, and it ended going pretty badly for everybody.” Not sure if it is the fear of liberalism or Communism but a number of conspicuous and non-conspicuous fears have…
THE PPP’s trajectory on Covid-19 was a promising one during the first wave, but today, the party’s approach to the alarming surge in infections can be compared to that of an ostrich with its head buried in the sand. This week, party chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari tested positive for Covid-19 and went into isolation, yet his party continues to fully participate in the opposition PDM’s rallies and is encouraging its supporters to attend a planned event…
by Fahd Husain in Dawn, November 28th, 2020The writer is Dawn’s resident editor in Islamabad.IT is deadlier than you think. The second wave of Covid-19 is upon us with a vengeance. It is getting closer and closer. Today a relative infected, tomorrow a friend down. Death has crept back into our social media timelines even as the government, belatedly, is crying itself hoarse about the need for SOPs. It may be too late. The infection…
The news that the United Arab Emirates, one of Pakistan’s closest allies, and the country from which the largest number of remittances are received by Pakistan, after Saudi Arabia, has decided to stop issuing new visas to Pakistan, both for visitors and for work, is disturbing. It is not yet clear what the precise reasons for the decision are. It was initially thought it was because of the Covid-19 pandemic but if that were the…
Crying need for clean slate : OP-ed
by Abbas Nasir in Dawn, Nov 29, 2020The writer is a former editor of Dawn.POLITICAL discourse in Pakistan has degenerated to a point of no return, with the government, paradoxically, leading the race and widening the chasm between itself and the opposition. The divide now appears unbridgeable. It is a paradox because the party in power, it is assumed, always has the most to lose and, in the normal course, tries to find some common…