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One of Toms Hanks' first television appearances was as a stoned-out-of-his-gourd Harvard student who spends all of his time blissfully staring at a lava lamp. The bit I remember is when somebody switches off the lava lamp and Hanks wails, "So, what are we supposed to do now?"
I mention this because in the past few weeks, the usually high temperature of Pakistan's feverish politics seems to have subsided somewhat. If nothing else, newspaper audiences are now no longer being

Nowadays, the government is under increasing pressure to divert solid waste to industrial power generation and it may be argued that we open the door to severe environmental and social impacts once factories start burning rubbish. In a climate conscious world, we achieve nothing by burning more waste somewhere else so perhaps it is time to take a step back and rethink our waste management policies and practices.
Our sarkaar may occasionally run around like a chicken with its head

It was a great pleasure to watch the way President Obama dealt with the Indian media, government and politicians single-handedly. It was not just entertaining to watch, it also demonstrated the full glory of democracy in a way which nascent half-baked democracies like us seldom witness. In a very hostile environment, Obama very amicably debunked all the tactics which were adopted to turn him against Pakistan and wheedle him into making statements against it.
The very first stop

Obama didn't visit Pakistan this week. But I guess he has good reason - it's rather rude, wouldn't you say, to bomb a country on a Sunday and then visit it on the Monday as if nothing is wrong at all.
His visit to India, on the other hand, was a natural choice, militarily speaking, considering that wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and proxy wars elsewhere, are not yet enough to satisfy the American military-industrial complex. So a chummy visit to one of the world's biggest

The US President Barack Obama left Delhi yesterday. In his 3-day state visit to India, Barack and wife, Michelle, spent two nights in Delhi - in the fabulously luxurious ITC Maurya Hotel. I have been to that hotel. The Obamas must have liked the window view from their presidential floor. All that you could see of Delhi from there is the green cover of Chanakaypuri, the Capital's diplomatic enclave. The problem is that this part of the city is beautiful but it is as unique as a

The recent activism on the part of Pakistan's disparate opposition has raised the issue that whether Pakistan is returning to the politics of the 1990s when anti-PPP parties used to get together temporarily to pull down the PPP government. Are these parties 'on the go' again? The answer is that they want to go for the "kill," but as the circumstances have changed since the 1990s, they will be inclined towards building enough pressure to paralyse, if not oust, the PPP-led federal

Disclaimer: This article is not a 'Dummies Guide to the Muslim Leagues of Pakistan'. Any attempts to construe it as such will only lead to great embarrassment for the said pretentious newspaper reader.
Seriously though, I don't think anyone knows how many incarnations there are today of the hallowed All-India Muslim League that, as all Pakistan Studies flunkers will know, came into existence in 1906. According to the Selection Commission of Pakistan - the most 'authentic' source

A seller of sweetmeats can either celebrate Diwali or sell his mithai. He cannot do both. The goddess of wealth will enter his door only if he keeps his shop open, not if he goes around bursting crackers. That is the nature of his compulsion; or, if you want to get theological about it, his dharma. Barack Obama comes to India on the night of Diwali not to enjoy a much-needed holiday after the woes of defeat, but to turn the Great American Hardware Store into a mall.
He was buoyed

Rehman Malik is an incurable gossip. Nobody thought he could ever talk about taking action against corrupt officials in the government departments. And he proved he couldn't. Somehow he has mastered the art of balancing the disadvantages of corruption with its advantages. Three days ahead of the formal launching of the covert operation against the corrupt officials, due from tomorrow, the Director FIA Lahore was sacked. It happened because he had not only ruffled many feathers while

Pakistan is not a failed state. It is a predator state. All states are predators, of two kinds: those that prey on other states and those that allow themselves to be preyed upon. The former enrich themselves by plundering smaller states, become developed and are thus able to look after their own people. The latter only have their own people to prey upon, also in two categories: the predator class and the prey, the people. Pakistan and most Third World countries fall in this

Throughout Pakistan's history, lawyers have played a prominent role in support of democracy both as individuals and as a social group. The show of power they put up in defence of an independent judiciary between March 2007 and March 2009 was however unprecedented. What is more, successive chairmen of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) like Munir Malik, Aitzaz Ahsan and Ali Ahmad Kurd were in the forefront of the struggle. The SCBA was thus reincarnated into something altogether

It has become patently predictable for the prime minister to keep repeating, ad nauseam, that his government will complete its five-year term. Of late, he has been adding spice to his perennial harangue by insisting that there will be no martial law and those dreaming of mid-term elections are enemies of the country. While he seems to have ample time to think of forces that may be working for the imposition of military rule in the country when there are none, one wonders whether he

The problem with the rat race, they say, is that even when you win you are still a rat. However the rodents operating in Islamabad have no problems with such labels. We hear this new genre of deal makers have two distinctions. They are sons of VVIPs and they work as a consortium. They also make their moves in broad daylight with fond fathers pushing the right buttons in the corridors of power. And, of course, they count their blessings and profits every night. The case of a night club

Barack Obama's sojourn to India - sixth by a US president, starting today, is causing jitters in Islamabad. Our India-centric foreign policy mandarins and defence analysts are worried that the visit will be detrimental to Pakistan's vital interests.
Foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, sounding like a jilted lover in a recent interview with the Time magazine, complained that as a longtime ally and friend, Pakistan has been consistently spurned by the US.
The symbolic

In his present avatar, Nawaz Sharif seems to be infused with a crusader's spirit in taking on the establishment while always making a deliberate attempt to further reinforce his own democratic credentials. And his espousal of popular causes means that he is consciously trying to forge a new identity for himself and for his party.
Given the PML's profile (of whichever hue, this has forever been a handmaiden of the establishment), this is an awesome undertaking. To be fair to him,

There are those times when one is thrust in an environment where nationalism is at such a height that one is forced to look deep within oneself, review the attitude of your own people and environment.
Today's Pakistan is ravaged by natural disasters of immeasurable magnitude. The devastating floods descending even before the chance of recovery from the deadly earthquake. Add to this the aftermath of almost a decade of frivolous financial management and the political turmoil of

This is interesting! A Saudi Prince Khalid Bin Bandar Bin Abdul Aziz Al-Saud has written a letter to the Supreme Court of Pakistan accusing the Ministry of Religious Affairs, known by the most unbecoming acronym Mora, of making money off the pious Pakistanis who go to perform Hajj.
The worthy prince has charged the ministry with rejecting his lower bid for pilgrims' residences and renting them for more than double the price offered by the prince. (Aside: I had no idea Saudi