by Malik Asad in Dawn, November 17th, 2020ISLAMABAD: US blogger Cynthia D Ritchie on Monday sought unfreezing of her bank accounts citing acute financial constraints. Her counsel filed an application before IHC Justice Aamer Farooq seeking court direction to unfreeze her bank account. The court was hearing the case related to deportation of Cynthia since the interior ministry has pointed out gross violations in issuance of business visa to her. IHC Justice Aamer Farooq heard…
Posts published in “Pak Media comment”
UNLAWFUL surveillance and invasion of privacy corrode the very foundations of a democratic social order based on universal principles of human rights. No information obtained through these methods is worth that price. Justice Mansoor Ali Shah in his dissenting note in the Justice Qazi Faez Isa case makes clear his disquiet over the means used by the Asset Recovery Unit with the help of the intelligence agencies to obtain information about the petitioner judge and…
Balochistan has long been licking wounds of neglect and underfunding by federation. The provincial leadership and politicians based in the province have over the years been airing grievances about deprivation of their people, especially the youth. Education is an area where the province rightfully feels left out. Even as students in other parts of the country make progress in this age of information technology, Balochistan’s students are set back by the dearth of such fundamental…
The story of the Kashmore rape case has shocked everyone, not least because it involved an assault on a mother-daughter pair. The killing of the main accused by an accomplice has only further added mystery to what really happened in the interior of Sindh, but the reaction of the federal government, which is to bring an ordinance enhancing the punishment, will not provide a sufficient substitute for proper policing. The crime is governed by the…
by Huma Yusuf in Dawn, November 16th, 2020The writer is a freelance journalist.……….Writing in The Correspondent, Nesrine Malik highlights the motivations beyond identity politics of many Trump voters, arguing that voters make rational trade-offs in order to “maximise [their] little stake” in poorly functioning democratic systems. She emphasises the role of enriched corporate shareholders, wealthy individuals enjoying tax loopholes, investors, entrepreneurs benefiting from looser regulation, and low-skill workers seeing higher wages in buoying Trump even…
by Syed Haider Raza Mehdi in daily Times, Nov 16, 2020The writer is a Geo political commentator / bloggerPresident Trump and the USA election, has shown us among many other things, the power and effectiveness of lies and unsubstantiated fabrications, which when repeated over and over again by leaders, transform into a “partisan” version of the “truth”! In Pakistan a similar strategy of outright lies and untruths is being adopted by the political opposition against…
by Umair Javed in Dawn, November 16th, 2020The writer teaches politics and sociology at Lums.THE past few weeks of PDM versus PTI jostling and related instability reveal a long-standing fact of Pakistan’s political sphere — its persistent, unceasing diversity. To some, this observation may seem trite given that the country’s society, culture and polity are frequently characterised as diverse, with multiple provinces, ethnicities, languages, sub-cultures, etc.However, my contention here is that the focus has largely…
by Maleeha Lodhi in Dawn, November 16th, 2020The writer is a former ambassador to the US, UK and UN.OVERSHADOWED by vigorous electioneering in Gilgit-Baltistan was a luncheon meeting called by Prime Minister Imran Khan earlier this month for allies of his coalition government. There were two noteworthy aspects of these parleys. One, that a coalition partner, PML-Q, chose to stay away while stating the reason quite plainly. Its leadership was quoted as saying, “The party’s…
by Prof Shabir Ahmad Khan in The News, Nov 16, 2020The writer is director, Area Study Centre (Russia, China & Central Asia) at the University of Peshawar.………. There is a realization in CARs to play an active positive role in ensuring sustainable peace in Afghanistan. CARs are ultimate stakeholders in the peace of Afghanistan as it provides the shortest outlet to the region in the southern direction. Kazakhstan has appointed a special representative for Afghanistan,…
…….In view of the domestic challenges, Biden is expected to follow a policy of facilitating Americans to succeed in the global economy—with a foreign policy for the middle class. For that, China will remain America’s number one economic challenge and to win the competition against China or anyone else, the US will rely on sharpening its innovative edge and will try to unite the economic might of like minded democracies. For that we may see…
Desperate plea: Editorial in The News, November 17th, 2020
A female judge from Punjab, Dr Sajida Ahmad, has written a moving letter to the chief justice of the Lahore High Court and to the chief justice of Pakistan, asking if lawyers and other persons usually present in a courtroom should be allowed to humiliate, harass, and mock female judges. Judge Dr Sajida has said that this is a frequent occurrence, and that she had even contemplated suicide before the Supreme Court Pakistan had this…