Columns

You'd think with its present culture of shootings and suicide bombings Pakistan would discover an alternative method of welcoming VIPs, but no, the Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao arriving in Pakistan was treated not just to a normal gun salute, but to a gunshot for each step he took. That may be our idea of honouring someone, but the Premier, poor man was probably a nervous wreck by the time he wobbled off the tarmac and into his car, in no fit state to handle his chopsticks for quite

A lot can be said about the graphic warnings on cigarette packs that have started appearing to discourage smokers. Maybe a pat on the government's back followed by a sharp kick in the derriere would be considered fair payback for scaring the daylights out of a pack-a-day smoker just going about his business. Yet, there it was at a luncheon in the deepest darkest Punjab that our host pointed out the new images and in return got ones with the latest rendition of a startled guppy fish at

The term "Jewish Question" has been used in a variety of ways, but its most common usage has been an anti-Semitic one; where it refers to all the "problems" that have been created because of the mere existence of the Jews. It was the Nazis who proposed a "final solution" to this question, a solution that they carried out in the death camps of Nazi Germany.
If you are a Sunni in Pakistan, it is very often that you might hear of problems such as the Shia domination of decision

The interesting thing about the internet is that it is as great a force-multiplier for ignorance as for knowledge. Take, for example, the Reko Diq project. The average Pakistani newsreader is convinced that (a) the Federal Government is an evil stooge of western interests; (b) the people of Balochistan are being ripped off yet again; and, (c) it is now up to the Supreme Court to save us. All three beliefs are completely wrong.
Here are some facts about the Reko Diq project.<br

December 17 has just come and gone again, so let me tell you a story.
Once upon a time there was a young slave boy. His masters decided to get him married to a young girl, though she was not the one he would have chosen. Once married, they would be set free. The girl was the one who had fought for freedom more than the young man. But though she was very intelligent and very beautiful, inside and outside, the young man did not think so, for where he came from beauty meant fair

India is in the midst of scams running into an astronomical figure. The one relating to 2G spectrum comes to $2 billion. The estimate about corruption in the Commonwealth Games held recently in Delhi is around $5 billion. Bureaucrats and some foreign firms have been found indulging in over-invoicing or high-jacking the cost of works. There are also a few housing scandals. In fact, one scam or the other has been tumbling out of the government closet at regular intervals in the last

Every good politician has a back door. And Maulana Fazlur Rehman knows exactly how to create one for himself. You have to be over-optimistic to believe that he will stay out of the ruling coalition for too long. It would have been difficult for him to resist the temptation of taking phone calls from the Presidency and the PM House but he might have done in hope of a better deal coming through. The Maulana is just trying to play it cool.
The JUI(F) pulled out of the coalition at

As Percy Bysshe Shelly (1792-1822), the self-proclaimed legislator of the world observed: The world is weary of the past, /Oh, might it die or rest at last!
The Combine and its ward, the political elites, have the obligation to rescue the country and themselves from the steep downhill slope of a tottered system of governance.
The saga of exercising sovereignty, since 1947 by the military and civil services (the Combine), clearly leads one to conclude that the Combine

As I alighted from the plane at Quetta airport, the piercing wind the locals call Kandahari hit me. It was my fourth visit to Balochistan in as many months, and like previous visits this one too answered some questions and, as always happens with intractable problems, left me with many more questions.
Twenty minutes after I had left the airport, word came about the suicide attack on the chief minister. The next day, as I sat through the graduation ceremony for students of the

Interesting times are never far away from the Pakistani political scene. When the debate was focused on the RGST and whether the government would be able to rustle up the legislative muscle to ram it through both houses of the parliament, the prime minister's showing the exit to a brace of ministers from his cabinet provided the spark that made the JUI(F) walk out of the coalition in a huff.
This made JUI-F the first party to exit from the carefully constructed and well coalesced

I've spent a lifetime hoping, praying and yelling there must come a time when Pakistan deserves to come first. There is nothing we have not seen happen. Hit by every possible calamity and enjoyed every possible success. But this wish of mine has not been fulfilled yet.
I've tried to provide solace to my pain by attributing this to the process of 'growing up', of evolution, the hyper-emotional character of our people, the list goes on. But each time, the disappointment is greater

A few days ago the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) issued a license for a new scheduled bank: the Sindh Bank. Two days ago, the Minister of State for Economics said that the government had to give Rs 300 billion a year to keep the bigger state-owned enterprises afloat and the government was keen to stop this eventually. The Minister of Finance has been going around saying that the government needs to cut expenditure and raise more money - even trying to impose an unpopular GST and ad hoc

If you have ever thumbed your way through a book of "famous last words", you'll understand why today's revelations about the late Richard Holbrooke are quite normal.
"Famous last words" collections have been printed worldwide by various publishers throughout the centuries. These publications claim to have an index of the famous last words of famous dying people - individuals whose special status has, unlike most other people, lent their last words to posterity, having led to

It has become a ritual to remember the fall of Dhaka without introspection and learning any lessons from it. It reminds me of the fall of Granada in 1492 when the last Arab ruler left his capital after his defeat and surrender. The last sigh of the Moor has become a symbol of helplessness as is evident in the fact that the Christian powers, after the reconquista, asked the Muslims and the Jews to either convert to Christianity or leave the country. In case of the fall of Dhaka, we do

Pakistan's national priorities are highly tilted in favour of state institutions and national security. This has contributed to strengthening state institutions like the bureaucracy and the military and the assigning of the highest priority to national security considerations.
Societal development and political institutions are neglected because of a lower priority for allocation of resources to the sectors that relate to nation-building and welfare of the people. The most

Really, Pakistan can also be the most entertaining place to live in! Where else does the Governor of a province disappear, missing sessions of the Provincial Legislative body without informing anyone of his intentions or whereabouts? It's all very exciting and makes you feel almost French as in the Scarlet Pimpernel madrigal: "We seek him here, we seek him there, we Pakis seek him everywhere; is he in heaven or is he in hell, that demmed elusive..." Sacre bleu!
When the Punjab

Last week began with a bang. My address changed. I became the Shah of the Jahan. I moved from the wrong side of the Yamuna to its right side. From Lower East Side to the heart of upper crust Delhi. Such a long journey: from Anand Vihar in middle-class east Delhi to Defence Colony in upper class south Delhi.
Defence Colony. The culmination of my dreams. So many times have I wistfully glanced at it from my DTC bus window as the 543 would rumble down the smoggy Ring Road. Would the