Columns

This is about the Lady maliciously rumoured to be the First. As it turns out, that was far from the case. She is nothing but your standard jiyali and proud of it. The lady, who is active in the US wing of the Pakistan People's Party, is always dressed in shalwar kameez of either the colours of the Pakistani flag or the PPP tricolour. At a recent party function stateside, she is said to have declined offers for an innocent cup of tea (ladies, there is no such thing!) from overzealous

The Raymond Davis fiasco is plastered all over. Every newspaper, every television channel, drawing room gossips, tea shop conversations, road-side predictions - all converge on the possible fate of Raymond Davis. More specifically, these interactions are about the manner in which he would ultimately be released because, discuss as one may, plead as one may, protest as one may, immunity or no immunity, it is evident that, at some stage in the future, the government would be left with

The suicide by Shumaila Kanwal, the widow of Muhammad Faheem, one of Raymond Davis' two victims, carries an ominous message. Shumaila was a young girl in her teens, recently married, whose husband was suddenly taken away from her. All her dreams about her future were shattered. The pain was made all the more unbearable because she could do nothing about bringing the killer to justice. She understood like many others in this country that the man being an American functionary was beyond

An evaluation of the performance of the federal cabinet which resigned on Wednesday after being in office for nearly three years is in order. All the more so after Prime Minister Gilani's claims regarding its successes. To many this would appear a one-sided narrative which needs to be corrected to keep the record straight.
Referring only to a surge in exports, increase in foreign exchange reserves and the Karachi Stock Exchange index and leaving out trends that nullify the

The Raymond Davis case continues to hang fire. Pakistanis want to know what happened, who the guy is, what he was up to, the deal that brought him here and allowed him to roam the way he did and so on. There are two broad levels of queries, one dealing with what happened on that fateful day in Qurtaba Chowk, the other with the broader issue of this man's ID and the nature of his work.
Answers are not forthcoming on these questions from either the Government of Pakistan (GoP) or

The 'Ugly American' was a sneering way to describe citizens from the US in the sixties and the seventies. Cartoonists showed them holding dollars in one hand and weapons in the other. This was the time when Washington was the biggest aid giver as well as the supporter of dictatorial regimes. Convulsions in Egypt and the unrest in most other Arab countries show that Uncle Sam has not learnt that democracy is not a half-way house.
You cannot foster the ideology when you overlook

Just when we thought we'd hit the rock bottom and it couldn't get any worse with double-digit inflation, increasing unemployment, rising incidents of terrorism in urban areas once again, being forced to watch the not so pretty but buffoonish politicians with an IQ of an ant on tele daily, with an unsavoury topping of pot bellied maulvis, (I have an endless list), along came Hon'ble Raymond 'the diplomat' Davis (hereinafter referred to as good old 'Ray'; Americans have a knack for

After wavering for what seemed like ages, and only forced by a set of circumstances well beyond his control, the prime minister on Wednesday finally sacked his bloated cabinet. Even here the prime minister was found coy in doing the needful in a straightforward manner, and to maintain appearances instead of getting fired the honourable ministers were shown the exit through en masse resignations.
Though none other than the outgoing ministers is going to shed a tear on the demise

It had to happen. It was inevitable that Israel was going to become the fishbone lodged in the throat of the US. That state was carved out of the hearts of a 120-million strong populace. Its very foundations were wrong. How could a nation-state of a few lakhs subject 120 million people living all round them to constant humiliation and belittlement? What rules have the US and Europe not broken to shelter this country? They compromised on their national interests. They betrayed allies.

After years of being drowned in a deep sea of fads, Tunisia and Egypt have offered us the rare opportunity to call a spade a spade. The first fad that already found its end is the proposition that the Arabs, per culture and religion, do not want democracy and if they call for change, due to adverse economic and/or political realities such as corruption or Israel's occupation of Palestine, they are calling for Islamism; another form of authoritarian regime.
The lie that any change

Bearing in mind that asking someone to go fly a kite would be considered rude and dismissive in many countries, it's no surprise that only in Pakistan would such a directive send ripples of joy throughout the land and be hailed as a bit of good thinking on the part of our decision-makers. Sadly, over five years have passed since the prohibition on kite-flying was imposed, yet the people of Pakistan remain deprived of the economic and cultural institution which is (or was) Basant.<br

This week, an American court convicted a Pakistani-born man of decapitating his wife. While there has been great chatter surrounding the role of religion in this case, it has overshadowed the larger issue here: that no one succeeded in helping this woman and her children safely escape the torments of this unstable and extremely violent man. Even in the United States of America.
Aasiya Zubair knew little of Muzzammil Hassan when she married him in October of 2000 in Karachi. Some

The decision to reduce the size of the federal cabinet is a sensible move. The Sindh government also removed 12 advisors and the Punjab government made a similar move by doing away with heads of various task forces who were enjoying perks and privileges without contributing significantly to good governance. These decisions are in line with the public demand for reducing the size of federal and provincial cabinets. Hopefully, the provincial governments will rationalise the size of

Who is Raymond anyway? Raymond Alan Davis may or may not be his name. He is said to be employed by the American embassy as a 'security technician' which could be true, or not. He may be in Pakistan on a valid visa, or not; he may have shot the boys in self defence, or maybe not. Is he telling the truth, are the Americans telling the truth, are the Pakistani witnesses telling the truth? And that other car that ran over another man, and got clean away: why was that car so close to Mr

The article wants to pose a teaser for the readers: Why, even in areas where we are already good, have we not been able to create global enterprises or enterprises whose ambitions are global.
There are doctors, working especially in the English speaking countries, who are Pakistani or of Pakistani origin. England has many as do the United States and Canada, and I am sure there must be some in Australia. And there are quite a few working in the Gulf. Amongst them there are doctors

"Nothing goes off suddenly; even the earthquakes set in motion from the depth of the earth to the rooftops of villages." This line from a poem written two decades ago by a renowned Palestinian poet Mourid Barghouti was reflective of his frustration over the long-brewing political morbidity and authoritarian culture in the Arab world which he predicted will one day be blown over in a popular rage.
The planet's greatest bastion of authoritarianism - the Arab world - is now under

Bob Woodword's book, Obama's Wars, printed last year still remains valid as it contains the assessment and thinking of President Obama and his senior ministers and officials. The book is devoted almost entirely to the problems and difficulties being faced by the Obama administration in defeating Al-Qaeda, Taliban and other extremist/terrorist organizations allied with them.
According to Mr. Levoy, the top expert on Pakistan in the Obama administration, "Pakistan is obsessed with