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 […]
A Story of Complicity: Statistical Relationship between a Newspaper and a Politician * The writer supports freedom of thought, freedom of expression and freedom of press as sort of absolute values. * This analysis by him is in good faith and may not be construed as intrusion in anyone’s privacy and freedom. * Since newspapers […]
Note: The day Benazir Bhutto was murdered, December 27, 2007, it was the day when all the semblance of government evaporated in Pakistan; there was widespread anarchy and uncertainty; there was arson, loot, and destruction. Fear prevailed. As if the life and property of ordinary citizens of this country were forsaken by the State! Here […]
This article was written last year in the wake of December 16 APS Tragedy to expose the Politicians’ inaction. It’s still relevant today on December 16, 2015. The road ahead is quite straight Beware of the politicians! They cannot think and act out of their politically blocked mentality! They are a victim of paradigms made […]
“I am a politician; I cannot commit any crime; I am perfectly innocent!” That is how, as we know at least in Pakistan, politicians argue. That manner of political self-defense clears the two-way traffic: criminals may become politicians; and, politicians may become criminals. Pakistanis have enough of both. And the breed is multiplying like rabbits. […]
The two noblest professions are teaching and politics. [Aristotle] Back in 2002 when the 35th Annual Session of Pakistan Philosophical Congress held in the Bukhari Auditorium, Government College (now G. C. University), Lahore. Dr. Naeem Ahmad was Secretary of the PPC (Dr. Naeem had been Chairman Department of Philosophy, University of the Punjab, Lahore), and […]
Here is the first part of this article: A depoliticized Pakistan on the rampage The 2nd and the final part: Depoliticization and its causes What’s a depoliticized Pakistan; how is it different from a politically apathetic Pakistan; how is it damaging both for the society and its state; who does now represent it, such questions were discussed […]
Note: I sent this piece of writing to all the newspapers one by one; none bothered to see it or use it, that I am justified to conclude! Why taxes are not a political issue in Pakistan? All the politics is about collecting and spending taxes; but unfortunately that reality does not translate into political […]
Note: This article was completed on December 31st, 2014, and was originally posted on this Blog in January 2015. Presently there is happening quite a serious debate on the 20 points envisaged in the National Action Plan. Its thrust is on two points: i) All these measures should have been in their place since long […]
Note: I completed this article on December 9, 2014, and wrote: “(Government) ought not to be afraid of martial law the prospects of which are zero presently, rather minus.” Now merely 9 months later the prospects of martial law have grown formidably positive; so what’s the game, politically speaking, let’s try to see: What’s the […]
Patron Islamabad Chamber of Small Traders Shahid Rasheed Button says State Aristocracy is being promoted in Pakistan. Here is the story published in Pakistan Observer of September 21, 2015. Bank tax dubbed as irrational Monday, September 21, 2015 – Islamabad—Patron Islamabad Chamber of Small Traders Shahid Rasheed Button Sunday said withholding tax (WHT) on bank transactions […]
Pakistan is a criminally horrible state. Read the whole story, published in The Express Tribune on September 15, 2015: Minister directs hospitals to remove political parties’ offices KARACHI: Sindh health minister Jam Mehtab Dahar has directed the managements of all public hospitals in the city to remove the offices of political parties from their premises, ordering […]
So to say, in about 70 years, the political gains Pakistan’s polity has been able to make are dismal! Pessimistically, it’s NOTHING! Optimistically, it’s merely the Constitution that itself came to be agreed upon about 25 years after the country’s emergence on the map of the world. That casts a heavy doubt on the credence […]
It seems the present dispensation of PML-N believes in no principles of taxation. It’s just there to extort whatever amount of taxes the Federal Board of Revenue may extort from the citizens in the form of bribes and in the name of taxes: of course, for itself as well as for the government. However, the […]
Note: This article was completed on August 4, 2014. Since then little has changed; this piece is still relevant on this 68th Independence Day. Stray reflections on the 67th Independence Day For the sane in Pakistan the fight is about protecting the values, the humanity has developed in the course of thousands of years, from […]
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
Please note: This post has been shifted to the Urdu Blog – Civil Pakistan. To see it, click the link below: Kya Peoples Party Benazir Bhutto
Alternate Solutions Institute released my latest paper, Pakistan’s Democratic Impasse – Analysis and the Way Forward, today (December 29). Copied below is the text of
Please note: This post has been shifted to the Urdu Blog – Civil Pakistan. To see it, click the link below: Darbaari Media, Darbaari Experts
Please note: This post has been shifted to the Urdu Blog – Civil Pakistan. To see it, click the link below: Shah Kharchiyan Aur Mandate Ka
Most of the English and Urdu newspapers of today (December 27), published the following full page advertisement on behalf of “Chief Minister Sindh and All
In The News of December 24, on page 5 there published an Advertisement. Here it is: What does that Ad mean? How come that suddenly
Please note: This post has been shifted to the Urdu Blog – Civil Pakistan. To see it, click the link below: Puranay Kaalum – Aik Eff
The News in its print edition on December 23 reported the following: Bakery boy absolves CM’s relative, cops of torture LAHORE: A judicial magistrate of
Please note: This post has been shifted to the Urdu Blog – Civil Pakistan. To see it, click the link below: Pakistan Ke Mujrim – Siyasi
Please note: This post has been shifted to the Urdu Blog – Civil Pakistan. To see it, click the link below: Zindagi Se Mahabbat Ki Tareekh
Anyone can see that there is not one Pakistan. After more than 60 years the two Pakistans can clearly be demarcated. One is for the
Please note: This post has been shifted to the Urdu Blog – Civil Pakistan. To see it, click the link below: Pakistan Ke Mujrim
Ordinary Pakistanis are in the jaws of another government-created crisis: they are facing shortage of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) in their homes as well as
Please note: This post has been shifted to the Urdu Blog – Civil Pakistan. To see it, click the link below: Hukoomat Maila
Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf by, using his discretionary powers, has appointed his son-in-law, Raja Azeemul Haq to the prestigious post of Executive Director of
