Columns

There is a broad consensus in society that the education sector needs reform. There is also an agreement on a) within education reforms it is the public sector that, for a variety of reasons, needs to be focused on, and b) while there are plenty of sub-areas that need focus and they are interconnected, we cannot have good public sector schools unless we have qualified and trained teachers, and these teachers have proper monitoring, evaluation, accountability and support structures to

The present elected civilian political arrangements will complete their third year in March 2011. Their survival is an achievement in the face of the pressures from the non-elected state institutions like the military and the judiciary.
However, the political leaders and parties have not been able to create a credible civilian alternative to a military dominated political order that attracts voluntary loyalty of the people on a sustained basis. This deficiency makes the future of

New Year's Eve 2010 was the worst day of Kareem Khan's life. And now the whole world knows about it.
He has made international headlines of the disaster that will continue to plague him for the rest of his life, a disaster many other Pakistanis have experienced in the last few years: the drone attacks that have killed thousands of civilians - people like Khan's eighteen-year-old son and Khan's brother who he says were innocently sitting in their homes when a remote-controlled

Musharraf, Pervez Musharraf. He might have been your 'enlightened' despot but he was born in my city. Something humiliating happened to the ex-dictator last week. My country refused to give him a visa to Delhi. Musharraf, who lives in London with wife and dogs, simply wanted to attend a seminar but India's foreign minister SM Krishna said, "Time is not conducive at this point to grant visa to the former Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf." Shame.
Today Musharraf's worth is

Some weeks ago, the cover of Newsweek featured a giant portrait of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry along with the question, "Can Chaudhry save Pakistan?"
My view is no: no judge can save Pakistan, not even the current chief justice.
The only way the current chief justice could save Pakistan would be if the absence of a good chief justice was the reason why Pakistan is in its current dire straits. That is not true: Pakistan is in a mess despite the fact that it has a

In an ideal world all lives should be valued equally, but when the reaction to the loss of a life varies with the ethnicity, nationality, colour or religion of the deceased, then for sure we have reached a less than ideal state of affairs. We Pakistanis are very quick to protest such behaviour, especially when it comes to the Western media's response to issues involving the death of Muslims.
But it so happens that for us Pakistanis, showing indignation is limited to issues where

Curiosity is not a crime. At least, not when I went to school it wasn't. My teachers always encouraged me to question, criticize and analyze. But then there are many who would call my professors heretics simply because they told us the truth.
The truth, you must understand, is not for public consumption. The masses are always on a need to know basis - and they usually don't need to know anything. Like a baby with a rattle or a kitten with a ball of wool or even a dog chasing his

One of Pakistan's top corporate magnates stated in a private conversation that the challenges confronting Pakistan's economy were by far less serious than those which Europe faced. When asked to elaborate, he said he would give just one example from Europe, its aging population. Analysts at the International Monetary Fund projected in 2006 that by the year 2050, Europe will have one retiree for every two workers. In the current year, the 55 to 64 year old age bracket is estimated to

Snow is a sheet on the ground, talcum on the trees, a patched overcoat on the Alps and an electric blue at Zurich airport. I have to catch a connection to Milan within 50 minutes but there is no hint of hurry when I check with ground staff. Swiss calm about process and punctuality is eerie. Clockwork is in the DNA. I go through unruffled immigration police, board a transit train, grab a vital necessity from duty free and still reach my next flight with time to dawdle. The train

This is kind of bad timing, but here it is. The US diplomatic cables released by the whistleblowing website have not only put the Obama Administration in an awkward spot but have also shaken Pakistan's political and military elite. The damaging revelations come at a time when the country's elected leadership is grappling with a host of problems while also being conscious of behind-the-scenes manipulation by the powerful army which continues to dominate the power equation.
Every

More often than not, I am telling you about what we have gained as a nation, if you can call us one. It's about time that we looked at what we have lost: half our beautiful country not least at the hands of a political party that millions of our compatriots still dote on, as if some kind of a curse has descended upon us. It is a curse that we have brought upon ourselves and cannot blame anyone for. The Bengalis are a wonderful people who strived more for the creation of Pakistan than

The credibility of Pakistan's ruling elite, both civil and military, has been badly damaged as a result of what the WikiLeaks have divulged. Prime Minister Gilani's decision to summon the DCC is thus being interpreted as an exercise aimed at damage control. The common man meanwhile seeks answers to some of the disturbing questions raised by the leaks.
Some of the leaks raise the disturbing question that whether the actions taken by the guardians of national sovereignty are in

It may take a while to fully and comprehensively fathom the extent of humiliating intrigue and duplicity at play in the conduct of inter-state relations, but, on the basis of what has already been released by WikiLeaks, one can say that the principal players on the Pakistani side have lost all moral ground to remain in any position of authority. When P. J. Crowley, spokesman of the State Department, was quizzed by Betty Anderson, he said that it was a secret document and had nothing

It is no secret that President Zardari hops on a plane and heads for China (not necessarily Beijing) at the drop of a hat and quite often to seek some Chinese wisdom on business and commerce. However, these meetings may not be a one-way process as we have allowed ourselves to believe. We hear that at a recent meet AZ quizzed the Chinese president on the secret of such phenomenal economic progress. He was quite unprepared for his answer. It was, he said, a Pakistani working at the

Diplomatic cables released by the whistleblower website WikiLeaks has all but exposed the tenuous nature of relations between the Pakistani military establishment and the civilian government. What was generally perceived to be true is now in black and white.
It is revealed that the politicians as well as the military leadership loved to cry on the matronly shoulders of former US ambassador Anne Patterson. Examples include General Kayani telling her in the midst of the judicial

Much as I love to have as much information as possible, that being part of the trade I ply, it is important to question the idea and use of document-dump: how much information should come out; should its supply be unadulterated; who should supply it, when, how, and to whom?
Attached to these questions are multiple concerns that deal not just with the wisdom of giving information at various levels on "need to know" basis but also about who can be trusted with information that

The state of the union and where Pakistan is at has become a moot point in discussions at diplomatic, official and commercial circles overseas. As a Pakistani it is interesting what they have to say because it brings one to focus dispassionately on the realities facing our country. Excessive defense of the indefensible creates disbelief, but there are many defensible points, incorrect perceptions depicted by international media and the actions of our very own elected representatives.