The Kashmir conflict: how to keep it alive
The Kashmir conflict, like other ones such as Palestine, does have a history. Parties to it write, rewrite and exploit this history to a point
February 4, 2013
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Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations; entangling alliances with none -Thomas Jefferson, 1743-1826. American people create abundant wealth. So, they are prosperous and happy. It is only because they are economically freer than many nations on earth. In consequence, that makes them politically freer. What makes all that possible is their declaration of […]
Judges rule on the basis of law, not public opinion, and they should be totally indifferent to the pressures of the times.– Warren E. Burger (1907-1995), Chief Justice, US Supreme Court. The best thing that explains the Supreme Court’s (SC’s) July 20 judgment is: it is never too late to mend. As is being claimed, […]
Judges rule on the basis of law, not public opinion, and they should be totally indifferent to the pressures of the times. – Warren E. Burger (1907-1995), Chief Justice, US Supreme Court. The best thing that explains the Supreme Court’s (SC’s) July 20 judgment is: it is never too late to mend. As is being […]
The theory of media consumption stands vindicated in Pakistan! The story goes thus: On June 29 the Federal Defense Minister, Ahmed Mukhtar, who had been sleeping all through the May 2 Abbottabad-Osama-Bin-Laden and May 23 PNS-Mehran-Karachi happenings, awoke to talk to a group of journalists apprising them that Pakistan had asked Washington to vacate the […]
When creative spirit of a nation is arrested from within, it is as vulnerable to external insinuations as is to internal machinations, and can never make any progress. “Pakistan is under siege.” We had enemies from the very first day. With time, the list of our enemies grew longer. So much so that today we […]
When creative spirit of a nation is arrested from within, it is as vulnerable to external insinuations as is to internal machinations, and can never make any progress. “Pakistan is under siege.” We had enemies from the very first day. With time, the list of our enemies grew longer. So much so that today we […]
When creative spirit of a nation is arrested from within, it is as vulnerable to external insinuations as is to internal machinations, and can never make any progress. “Pakistan is under siege.” We had enemies from the very first day. With time, the list of our enemies grew longer. So much so that today we […]
The middleman tends to be eliminated . . . He can only be safely eliminated by natural processes. Sometimes he is of real use and helps production; sometimes he is not; but this cannot be decided by a blind strike, but only by allowing the forces of competition to act upon him. [Hon. Auberon Herbert] […]
How to Privatize Successfully – Part I If privatisation needs to be done, it has to be done because it is the decisive step in transforming the economic system. Regarding foreign help Dr Klaus is very blunt: I think that the typical foreign help was sending would-be advisors and consultants. It became one of the […]
Changing the economic system is not an easy task. And, of course, it is more complex when carried out half-heartedly. As privatisation is only a part of this process, it may not succeed if done in an isolated manner. It needs certain other changes and a competitive environment to bear fruit. A case in point […]
He knows nothing; and he thinks he knows everything. That points clearly to a political career.[George Bernard Shaw, 1856-1950] People are difficult to govern because they have too much knowledge.[Lao Tzu, 604 BC – 531 BC] Underneath our views of everything lies a theory of knowledge. We have views about the world, and what exists […]
[Here is the part 4 of the article: “Cynicism and Pakistan.”] The Theory of Lesser Evil (TLE) is a manifestation of cynicism. As cynicism finds its meaning mainly in negativity and faultfinding, TLE too believes that everything is Evil; there is no Good. If everything is Evil, and there exists no Good, then what we […]
You can bring the rich to the level of the poor overnight but it takes a lifetime to lift the poor to the level of the rich.– Irish proverb During the 1970s, Pakistan went in for wholesale nationalization of its private enterprises, taking even educational institutions into the state’s hands. This was a move laden […]
[Here is the part 3 of the article: “Cynicism and Pakistan.”] The discussion of the political cynicism here focuses only on the sections of society which exercise influence on the formation of public opinion. These sections may be considered as the mainstay of political cynicism in Pakistan. As far as the general citizenry is concerned, […]
The credit for any reduction in poverty in the country goes to privatisation, de-regulation and liberalisation, not to the so called pro-poor expenditures. Over a period of five years between 1999-2004, the government of Pakistan spent Rs.1 trillion on poverty reduction. According to the Finance Ministry, Poverty Reduction Special Programme included budgetary and non-budgetary expenditures […]
Here is the 1st part of this article: Cynicism in Pakistan Cynicism and the politics in Pakistan Among other things, political cynicism destroys whatever little chance may exist for dialogue in a deteriorating situation. This I learned from our own company of friends. Frankly, that learning came at the cost of that company’s dissolution. Actually […]
It’s always been argued that there is no clergy among the Muslims. Is it so? Not the least! In fact, there is all the ‘required’ evidence available to defy this claim. Regardless of the positions and interpretations the Muslim scholars advocate in this respect, there always existed and still exists such a body of religiously […]
The Kashmir conflict, like other ones such as Palestine, does have a history. Parties to it write, rewrite and exploit this history to a point
Please note: This post has been shifted to the Urdu Blog – Civil Pakistan. To see it, click the link below: Taraqqi Pasand Musannifeen, Angrezi Navel
Please note: This post has been shifted to the Urdu Blog – Civil Pakistan. To see it, click the link below: Pakistan Ne Hamain Kya Diya?
Enver Baig’s 2008 report on ‘Tawana Pakistan’ still not implemented ISLAMABAD:The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) took almost four years to probe multi-billion scam of Tawana
On the one side are the victims’ families, Leftist groups, and NGOs, and the sympathizers of the victims of the Baldia factory fire, who demand
Senate question hour: ‘Govt waived Rs360b in taxes, duties in 5 years’ ISLAMABAD: The government waived taxes and duties worth Rs.360 billion to various entities in
Please note: This post has been shifted to the Urdu Blog – Civil Pakistan. To see it, click the link below: Kya Admiral Fasih Bokhari (Retired)
It was back in the days when the lawyers’ movement for the rule of law was at its zenith. On the 9th of March, 2007,
Please note: This post has been shifted to the Urdu Blog – Civil Pakistan. To see it, click the link below: Riyasati Ashrifiya Ka Pakistan –
Great people to fly with! LAHORE: A senior PIA official caused the PK 562 Karachi-Islamabad flight to land at the Allama Iqbal International Airport late
Pak politicians taking our taxes, not paying their own: UK minister LONDON: International Development Secretary Justine Greening has defended giving millions in aid to Pakistan
Please note: This post has been shifted to the Urdu Blog – Civil Pakistan. To see it, click the link below: Na Ehel Aur Ghair Haazir
LHC stays proceedings in PML-Q MPs damages suits LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Monday stayed the proceeding of a civil court hearing Rs 50
Please note: This post has been shifted to the Urdu Blog – Civil Pakistan. To see it, click the link below: Khan Fazlur Rahman Khan Ki
Please note: This post has been shifted to the Urdu Blog – Civil Pakistan. To see it, click the link below: Pak Bharat Jang Ke Saaye?
Please note: This post has been shifted to the Urdu Blog – Civil Pakistan. To see it, click the link below: Pak Bharat Muzakraat Ka Makhmasa
ISLAMABAD: While giving “Plot Amnesty” to those top bureaucrats and judges who got more than two plots in the past under the Prime Minister’s Special
FOR a developing country like Pakistan the biggest threat to its existence is terrorism within its boundaries which, if unchecked, may render it ungovernable. While
KARACHI: While millions of households in Karachi go without clean drinking water for days despite having pipelines, those with direct connections in the water board
ISLAMABAD: During the last four fiscal years – up until December 2012 – the government has spent more than Rs2 billion on a media campaign for
The sort of politicking being hurled around in Pakistan proves with ample evidence that the next general elections are at hand. Somehow, the latest episode
Please note: This post has been shifted to the Urdu Blog – Civil Pakistan. To see it, click the link below: Kya Bijli Ka Bohraan Kabhi
Please note: This post has been shifted to the Urdu Blog – Civil Pakistan. To see it, click the link below: Tahir-ul-Qadri Aur Authareti Ka Tasawwur
For the last 62 years we the ordinary people of this country have been, and are still being, COERCEDin the worst possible and worst imaginable
Please note: This post has been shifted to the Urdu Blog – Civil Pakistan. To see it, click the link below: “Bharti Baraaye Driveraan-O-Condectraan”
In the wake of escalating Line of Control skirmishes between India and Pakistan, the fear of a war is still lurking in the air. In
Please note: This post has been shifted to the Urdu Blog – Civil Pakistan. To see it, click the link below: Riyasati Ashrafiya Ka Pakistan –
Please note: This post has been shifted to the Urdu Blog – Civil Pakistan. To see it, click the link below: Tahir-ul-Qadri Swaang: Hizb-e-Ikhtilaaf Aur Hizb-e-Iqtidaar
What’s a conspiracy mindset? It’s a mind set in to explaining things or events by going beyond the same things and events. That is, it
Please note: This post has been shifted to the Urdu Blog – Civil Pakistan. To see it, click the link below: Niji Skool Aur Taaleem Ka
Here is a cartoon published in The Express Tribune today (January 16, 2013) depicting Tahir-ul-Qadri as an exploiter of his followers. Is it so? Another
As the Supreme Court issues orders to arrest the Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf in Rental Power case, the ever-alive factories of conspiracy mindset have
Apart from the fact of corruption, inefficiency and criminality rampant in and under the present government of Pakistan Peoples Party and its allies, Awami National
Please note: This post has been shifted to the Urdu Blog – Civil Pakistan. To see it, click the link below: Insaan Ka Rumaanwai Tasawwur –
Please note: This post has been shifted to the Urdu Blog – Civil Pakistan. To see it, click the link below: Niji Skool Aur Taaleem Ka
Amid continuing bloodshed and the criminally failed State, what the citizens of Pakistan need, first and foremost, is Protective Agenda – a State fully and
Animism did not die with the men that endowed inanimate things with life and soul. It survived and flourished in different areas in different forms
Here is the latest manifestation of ideological robotics: Maoists plant bomb in dead Indian cop Patna: Maoist rebels planted a bomb inside the stomach of
In the following they seem to be of the same ilk: Both believe in violence as the most effective instrument of their policy! Both believe
Please note: This post has been shifted to the Urdu Blog – Civil Pakistan. To see it, click the link below: Niji Taaleem Ki Regulashan Ka
Here is one measure how dangerous they are: Turkey lifts ban on thousands of books “Istanbul: From communist works to a comic book, thousands of
“Islamabad: The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Thursday (December 20) directed the ministry of defence to abolish lifetime perks and privileges to all former managing directors
Please note: This post has been shifted to the Urdu Blog – Civil Pakistan. To see it, click the link below: Khan Fazlur Rahman Khan and
Copied below is the Exordium from my latest paper, Pakistan’s Democratic Impasse – Analysis and the Way Forward, released by the Alternate SolutionsInstitute on December
Please note: This post has been shifted to the Urdu Blog – Civil Pakistan. To see it, click the link below: Muhim Juoon Ki Baraat?
The caption reads: A rickshaw and a small trailer, with Jamaat-i-Islami posters and flags, have been making rounds on The Mall (Lahore) to tell people
“ISLAMABAD: Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP) Buland Akhtar Rana on Thursday (January 3) told the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) that he had ordered to conduct
In order to secure constitutional protection for Muslims, the Muslim League argued in separatist language on the basis of a different religious identity. However, as
Please note: This post has been shifted to the Urdu Blog – Civil Pakistan. To see it, click the link below: Khud-Sudhaari Ka Mughaalta