The writer is visiting faculty on mobile technologies at the IBA, Karachi. THE government’s ‘mandatory’ SIM re-verification drive is no real solution to controlling terrorism. First introduced by Germany and Switzerland in 2003, the concept of mandatory registration of prepaid SIM cards is now either fully implemented or under serious consideration in over 80 countries. However, as the Groupe Spéciale Mobile Association recently pointed out, mandatory SIM registration where used “primarily as a tool to…
Posts published in “Pak Media comment”
The writer is an author and art historian. IF ever Pakistan needed a spinal transplant, it is now. X-rays have revealed that, whatever rudimentary backbone it may have had at birth, over the years has atrophied. On two occasions recently, it has taken intervention at the highest level for the flabby administrative organs of our government to take action. It took a chief of army staff to order the director general Rangers to remove decade-old…
As summer approaches, the acute power shortfall in the country will move onto the centre-stage of our national problems. Indeed, even before summer hits with full might, and with the north of the country in fact enjoying a prolonged spring, the shortfall we are told already stands at around 5000MW to 6000MW. This will not be an easy gap to fill. Lack of electricity, a problem familiar to all of us, affects not only domestic…
The writer is a lawyer. The PML-N and the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) have finally agreed to form a judicial commission to probe the 2013 elections and determine three things: were they conducted impartially, fairly and justly in accordance with law; were they manipulated by systematic design; and were the results a fair reflection of public mandate. If there was ever a commission to be formed likely to do nothing other than drag the judiciary into…
The writer is a lawyer based in Lahore The First Amendment to the Constitution of the US is unique in the world. Other than religious freedom as well as a bar on Congress from respecting an establishment of religion, this amendment provides for an unfettered right to freedom of speech and press. This is how it should be everywhere ideally but, unfortunately, we live in a less than ideal world. The advantages of having an…
We may be in the midst of a democratic transition in Pakistan, but political parties appear to be hell bent to act against their own interests. The PML-N-led National Assembly has passed a bill to hold party-less local bodies elections in Islamabad. Not only did the PML-N act against the agreement in the Charter of Democracy, it has negated the spirit of the constitutional requirement in the 18th Amendment to devolve governance to the lowest…
Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Raheel Sharif stands out in contrast to his predecessor, General Ashfaq Parvez Kiyani. Whereas the latter dragged his feet over clearing FATA, especially North Waziristan, of terrorists and their local and foreign affiliates, General Sharif has taken the bull by the horns. One of the triggers may have been the APS attack in Peshawar that led to the massacre of students and their teachers, but the COAS’s resolve to…
If one were to go by the claims put out regularly, it seems that Operation Zarb-e-Azb, launched in June last year, is progressing successfully and is going in the right direction. However, in the absence of any independent corroboration of these claims or our own reports from ground zero, one finds it difficult to state with any degree of confidence how this war is poised currently. One is not in any way questioning the ISPR…
MARDAN – An extortionist blew up the house of a person for not paying the extortion money in the limits of Toru police station in the wee hours of Sunday. According to Toru police station, Wazir Khan, a resident of Sohbaht Kalliy, told the police that a person identified as Fatih Zaman, a resident of Daggar Buner, for the last several days had been calling him on his cell phone for extortion money. He told…
A YEAR and a half since the so-called Karachi operation against militant and criminal elements in the provincial capital was first approved by the federal government, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif once again huddled with the senior-most military commanders in the city on Wednesday.The outcome: a new, wider and, possibly, even more intense, crackdown on militant and criminal elements is to begin.To the extent that the political and military leadership has reiterated a collective resolve to…
Reaching conclusions ; Editorial in The News,April 10th, 2015.
The judicial commission we have been hearing about for months to probe the 2013 general elections and allegations from the PTI of massive manipulation in them is finally in place. Following the completion of formalities ordered by the federal government Chief Justice of the Supreme Court JusticeNasirul Mulk has set up a three-member commission which he himself will head. As expected, the commission, which also includes Justice Amir Hani Muslim and Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan,…