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The Parliament is perhaps the only pillar of state which has not tried over the last three years to trespass its limits. Despite this, it has made solid though belated progress to strengthen itself and its system of committees. The PML(N) now wants to bypass the Parliament by seeking to hold an unusual conference comprising politicians, serving judges and generals. The agenda of the conference as spelled out by Mian Shahbaz Sharif is "to discuss the challenges faced by the country".

Apparently, we have an education emergency. As emergencies go, this one has taken us 63 years to register. That makes it quite an emergency. But let's not quibble over minor issues and take a look at this emergency instead.
The current bout of hysteria follows a report by the Pakistan Education Task Force. The report is on the internet and it says on the main webpage "Sign the Petition to End the Education Emergency: Click here to Support." I was about to click the indicated

After a very long time I managed to spend ten days continuously in Pakistan, visiting Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad. It felt really good for the most. There is such a mixture of thoughts and feelings prevalent. Most of them negative, unfortunately. It's confusing to say the least. But what has me smiling is that I saw the side of Pakistan that I grew up with thriving, albeit a little dangerously.
My penchant for and commitments to dogs, especially German Shepherds, had me flying

If there was any hope that the Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif's telephone call to Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani may lead to rapprochement between the by far two largest political entities in the country, it turned out to be short-lived. The Shahbaz Sharif initiative didn't even help in fence-mending between the PPP and PML(N), and if anything the mistrust was enhanced.
For the PPP, the provocative part in the proposal was extending an invitation to the army and the

It seems as if the leadership of Pakistan is dilapidating fast and furiously. Its destruction started way back in 1958, when the Armed forces, according to a well-laid plan, decimated the elected constitutional institutions of Pakistan and removed the people who had the will and ability to run these institutions from the political scene. Most of these capable politicians had to face decade-long bans, 10 years being the political life of any shrewd and seasoned politician. As envisaged

Mian Nawaz Sharif, in a recent statement, suggested that one way oaf getting out of the current economic problems is through balancing the federal budget. The deficits we are running are causing crowding out, inflationary pressures, and putting excessive pressure on the financial and fiscal system of the state. The deficits are also forcing the State Bank to print too much money, at the behest of the government, and in the process the integrity/autonomy of the State Bank, as an

Governance is not a matter of wishful thinking. Nor is it some political trickery. For this, a clean, transparent administration is something minimum. By providing more funds for different fields, as the budget has done, does not automatically ensure improvement, particularly when the aam admi has been consciously left out. If past experience is any guide, the bigger the expenditure the greater is the scope for siphoning off money. A few scams, which have come to light, show how large

Another high profile political personality belonging to the ruling Pakistan People's Party (PPP) has fallen victim to a violent attack on March 2 by hard line Islamic activists who targeted him for publicly dissenting from their select religious beliefs and notions. The underlying motive is not Islamic but an ambition to dominate the state and society by creating fear that nobody is beyond their destructive reach. The escalating terrorism also exposes the incapacity of the state

This week another International Women's Day has come and gone and one wonders why this day is necessary at all. And why there's no International Men's Day.
So the answers rather spill out on their own because the world finds itself needing to set aside one day a year, every year, for those who are marginalised in society. Not that the commemorations get terribly specific - there is, after all, no International Day for poor children whose mothers didn't get an education because

Last Sunday afternoon I was with my most beloved Pakistani. I accompanied Urdu poet Zehra Nigah, 75, to Mehrauli Archaeological Park. Make no mistakes. I'm not an aspiring poet and Urdu is largely inaccessible to me but it was a learning experience for this Indian to spend a few hours with this visitor from across the border.
Zehra Apa, who lives in Karachi, was in Delhi to attend a mushaira, a poetry session. Taking a break from meeting old acquaintances at her daily hangout in

Pakistanis have a very curious way of expressing themselves when things don't go their way. All it takes is for the notion of being duped or offended to sink in and a good bit of car smashing and tire burning is just a mob away. Often getting distracted with trifling matters escalated by the media, the decisions that are real threats to the public interest mostly seem to go by unnoticed - until it is too late. If you have never been an irate investor lobbing rocks at the stock

People seem to be losing either their memory or their minds nowadays. A glimpse of the news and the rhetoric generated over the past three months makes it appear that the general public hasn't come to realise the great leaps of logic being played against them.
Take, for example, the detention of four Germen tourists at the hands of the Garhi Shahu Police in Lahore just last week. They were on their way, it appears, to look at some carpets - a respectable tourist activity - when

Disclaimer: I apologise in advance to all my friends, family members and anyone I've been remotely associated with, ever, in my entire life. I mean no one harm and the last thing I want to do is to endanger the lives of those I care about. Having said that, I must make it clear that I cannot hold back my feelings on this subject any longer. I understand the risks of committing blasphemy in Pakistan, but my convictions are far too important to put aside simply out of fear for someone

Sometime during the late sixties, Asif Bhatti was born in the small town of Hafizabad in central Punjab. As the son of a small landholding peasant, bred by the gracious waters of the Chenab, he was no different from countless others conceived and given birth to in the same month, in the same area. All of these children would, in time, represent Punjab the same way their fathers and grandfathers had done before them.
Incidentally though, this was not the Punjab of their fathers or

Historians periodise history on the basis of their interpretation and perspective to understand its importance. Compared to their own time, they refer to the past periods sometime as either dark or enlightened .Such periodisation can also be challenged by the coming generations of historians who look to the same past with quite different outlook and interpret it according to their own time frame. This dialectic keeps history moving from one point of view to other,
In the case of

Dr. Farooq Sattar, the Deputy Convenor of the MQM, stated in a media briefing on Feb. 26, 2011 that MQM will support new provinces, especially in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa "in accordance with the aspirations of the people". The Prime Minister also declared in the National Assembly on Feb. 22, 2011 that his Government. was open to creating new provinces in areas that now constitute Punjab. With two of the biggest mainstream political parties in Pakistan lending their support, the

Once upon a time he gave us Cup-brimming joy (T20 in the old Blighty) but it is the short wave that leaves us with a deep void.
Few however, can deny it is his devil-may-care mien that enthralls us all - from America to Antarctica (okay, the second one is a slight exaggeration but isn't that the farthest he wants to hit every ball?).
Sahibzada Shahid Khan Afridi, in my considered opinion, is the very personification of Pakistan today - impulsive, restless, ambitious and