The road ahead is quite straight

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 […]

Crimes and the political alibi

“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. […]

Pakistani philosophers and politics

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 […]

Depoliticization and its causes

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 […]

Why taxes are not a political issue in Pakistan?

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 […]

The 21st point: Overhaul the state

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 […]

What’s the game, politically speaking?

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 […]

State Aristocracy (ریاستی اشرافیہ) being promoted in Pakistan

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 […]

What the political parties are doing in hospitals!

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 […]

Pak polity – racing backwards

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 […]

PML-N’s Bhatta or withholding tax

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 […]

Stray reflections on the 68th Independence Day

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 […]

Military courts: a moral perspective

A person who is murdered, has he any rights? That question may seem strange. Let me add another dimension to it: What’s the spirit of law? Does it exist for the rights of the murderers to be protected? Or, it exists for the alive so that they enjoy their life safe and sound? Last year, […]

A depoliticized Pakistan on the rampage

The pivot of politics is always seeking power, so that a political party is able, so to say, to implement its program on the basis of which it wins voters’ mandate. That’s an ideal statement of an ideal polity! In reality it doesn’t happen like that. There are betrayals, treacheries, and opportunism on the part […]

Prosperity is here in Pakistan, Mr. PM!

Countries may be likened to individuals who are resourceless and in order to grow and progress need help from their near ones, dear ones or they borrow from a professional lender. That may be understood as the reality of setting-up a business for which capital is a sine qua non. Such attempts of likening countries […]

The Political Kingdom of Pakistan

The Government of India Act 1935 declared “Pakistan” only as an independent dominion. Then in the constitution of 1956, the state was named as the “Islamic Republic of Pakistan.” However, when the constitution of 1962 was promulgated, the state of Pakistan found a new name, “Republic of Pakistan” with the prefix “Islamic” dropped. The same […]

Cynicism in Pakistan

The title of this piece appears to be problematic. One can argue how cynicism may be confined to geographical specifications such as one of Pakistani type. But Pakistani cynicism may be justified on the ground that whatever its general meaning, the way a cynicism formulates in a society makes it special. Thus this piece tries […]

Bilawal – a political crown prince

History is replete with stories of off-springs used in order to seize and wield power. One such story has been narrated by Abdul Haleem Sharar in his excellent Urdu book, “Guzishta Lucknow” (Lucknow of the past). In its chapter on “Jang-e-Azadi aur Lucknow” (War of Independence and Lucknow), he writes: “The King, Wajid Ali Shah […]

چین کدھر؟ یا پاکستان کا بایاں بازو کدھر؟

کل 17 اپریل کو میں ریاض صاحب سے ملنے گیا۔ ریاظ ، مصورہیں اور بیشترعلمی و ادبی کتابوں کے سرورق کھینچتے ہیں۔ وہ کہنے لگے، الحمرا (مال روڈ،لاہور) میں ڈاکٹر لال خان کی کتاب کی رونمائی کی تقریب ہے، اگرآپ نہیں چاہتے تو نہیں جاتے؛ورنہ چلتے ہیں۔ میں نے کہا، کوئی بات نہیں، چلتے ہیں۔ […]

Malala’s Peace Prize, cynics and ashraafists

The case of 2014 Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Malala Yousafzai, which she shares with an Indian Kailash Satyarthi, who has devoted himself to the cause of child slavery, may be used as a litmus test should we want to know the bent of mind of any Pakistani fellow. This will help us know whether […]

Sarkari Jonken

Please note: This post has been shifted to the Urdu Blog – Civil Pakistan. To see it, click the link below: Sarkari Jonken

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Stray points – 1

* Governments, i.e. ruling elites kill their own citizens, sometimes by their unwise vested policies as in Pakistan, and sometimes using the same weapons they

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Karachi Ke Saudagar

Please note: This post has been shifted to the Urdu Blog – Civil Pakistan. To see it, click the link below: Karachi Ke Saudagar

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Takhayyul Ki Maut

Please note: This post has been shifted to the Urdu Blog – Civil Pakistan. To see it, click the link below: Takhayyul Ki Maut

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War against virtue

As the Chief of Army Staff, General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani has recently clearly identified who are extremists and who are terrorists, and as these extremists

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Waiting torture in Pakistan

Yesterday’s Pakistan Print Edition of International Herald Tribune contains Why waiting is torture, by Alex Stone. A very good piece which discusses our psychology of

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Zawaal Ke Nishaan

Please note: This post has been shifted to the Urdu Blog – Civil Pakistan. To see it, click the link below: Zawaal Ke Nishaan

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The crimes states commit

This does not relate to the crimes states commit against one another. This takes exception to the crimes states, or Pakistani state, commit against their

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Tareekh Ki Muhim

Please note: This post has been shifted to the Urdu Blog – Civil Pakistan. To see it, click the link below: Tareekh Ki Muhim

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A world without rules

Now it’s a considered view of mine that it is in making rules, just rules, and following them, and implementing them across the board that

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Enterprise of history – I

This is in continuation of a previous post, “Hind and Sindh civilizations and getting religion politicized.” As I see that, and ,of course, for that

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Signs of decline – 1

Reflections on various things: Signs of decline I am an integral part of this society; but I am an observer of it also. I feel,

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Enter the Age of Rules

Earlier in the post, The Rise of State Aristocracy in Pakistan, the following was stated: “. . . the author thinks that humanity is entering

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Entertainment in Pakistan

Reflections on various things: Entertainment in Pakistan It was in 2003 that I was in Ankara (Turkey); one of the acquaintances put a question that

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First things first

That rulers and ruled are different. That means governments and their citizens are different. That means ruling elites and the ordinary citizens are different. That

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