Columns

Disclaimer: The views and ideas expressed herein contain no relevance to real life, and any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental. Or is it...?
You can't go around misusing judicial authority. It's just one of those things that you don't do. For example, telling your wife that she's getting fatter just because you're too cheap to take her out for a nice dinner just isn't cricket. I mean, the power invested in man to judge the curvature of the female form

Disclaimer: The views and ideas expressed herein contain no relevance to real life, and any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental. Or is it...?
You can't go around misusing judicial authority. It's just one of those things that you don't do. For example, telling your wife that she's getting fatter just because you're too cheap to take her out for a nice dinner just isn't cricket. I mean, the power invested in man to judge the curvature of the female form

Directly Moulded Sole (DMS) boots are heavy and rugged shoes that are designed for use by soldiers. Since independence, the offices of our elected leaders have reverberated regularly with the thumping of these boots. Each time when we are under these heavy soles, we are told that as Pakistanis, we are not evolved enough to deserve the freedom of deciding our own destiny. Back in 1958, our first elected President; Mr. Iskander Mirza, after inviting our first Martial Law, legitimized it

When does a small town grow up and become a big boy? Does size matter? Geography is a peculiar addiction. Fat makes you large, possibly very large, but it does not make you strong. Some nations have a quarter of their population herded in slums extending in myriad directions because they have not created the capacity to build more cities. America's strength does not lie in New York and Washington but in the fact that Microsoft can be born in Seattle and the world's software industry

Learning is an arduous and difficult but thrilling and fascinating process. That's why individuals and nations are reluctant to learn something new. If someone wants to learn, he has to change his mindset and be ready to recognize those traditions and values which are contrary to his beliefs. It is the lesson of history that learning not only opens new venues of knowledge but also helps one explore a hidden and unknown world and eliminates outdated and obsolete ideas. It inspires one

Last week in this space I wrote that the lending of permanence to the Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) through the Competition Act, 2010 ('the Act') is a welcome development. I argued that 'intra-provincial' trade cannot be covered by CCP and the provinces need to wake up to this fact. And even though pressing social issues such as the Brad-Angelina story deserve my attention this week, I somehow feel compelled to say more about competition law.
All that sounds good in

Munni Badnaam Hui is all the rage across the border these days. One of the easier barometers to judge a single's popularity - regardless of how connoisseurs define and measure its critical import - is to determine its radio gaga.
Munni has just entered the list of top 20 most frequently played songs on radio in India!
However, there's the munna matter of Munni's origin - or, as one Indian friend sportingly acknowledged, "inspiration". The chartbuster has been lifted from a

I've said it before and I'll say it again: this parliament must complete its natural life, no matter how bad it gets, as must the provincial assemblies. This is an absolute imperative. Else we won't grow and mature politically and the system will not evolve. If any changes have to be made, they must only come constitutionally. There are three ways to do this:
1. The National Assembly can elect a new prime minister if the incumbent feels that he has lost the confidence of the

There doesn't seem to be an end to these absurdities. The Punjab Assembly keeps creating controversies by adopting pointless resolutions, thanks to the province's myopic political leadership. Last week's resolution asking the federal government to develop consensus among the federating units for building the Kalabagh Dam was no less bizarre than the one it had adopted against the media three months ago. You can't expect anything sensible from the Q-League especially from its mindless

What does the word Ram, the name of one of the most important Hindu gods, mean to you? Do you think of thousands of Indian Muslims who have died in the violence unleashed under his name? Do you think of Mahatma Gandhi who died while saying 'Hey Ram'? Do you think of LK Advani, the Karachi-born BJP leader whose Ram Temple movement is single-handedly responsible for the killings of thousands of Indians?
Last month, on September 30, India stopped. In Delhi, the markets were shut

What the people of Afghanistan deserve after three decades of foreign aggression, civil war and terrorism is peace so that they can reconstruct their country which has been destroyed many times over. What they require from other countries in the region, irrespective of their systems and mutual rivalries, is assistance to realise their dream. Naturally, the Afghans would welcome help coming from any quarter in overcoming terrorism and in the subsequent nation building. <br

Wednesday morning, I switched on the BBC and was engrossed watching the live saga of the rescue of 33 men trapped since August 5 when San Jose mine collapsed in Chile's Atacama Desert. Such are the moments that lift the spirit and strengthen your faith in human resolve and determination. From the depths of darkness to the light of day, it is one edifying odyssey reflecting the coming together of a nation in a bid to rescue the trapped miners alive. From the president of the country

Musharraf may be in North Carolina picking up every speaking opportunity to do some hard Sharif bashing but the conscientious London police is still on the job, guarding the "Paki" President's residence. We hear that even in Mush's absence, his flat in a square behind London's Edgware Road, is heavily guarded by plain clothes police personnel. Any casual passer-by enquiring "Does Musharraf live here?" is simply asking for it. He is promptly greeted by "Musharraf who!" but no sooner

Despite the government getting a temporary respite till November 1st, when its review petition regarding the declaration of National Reconciliation Ordinance as illegal by the Supreme Court will be heard, the gauntlet thrown at Mr. Zardari and his cohorts is still very much in place. In the end analysis, being allowed to change the lawyer representing the government proved to be a pyrrhic victory.
The tension in the air can be judged by the crisis created by media reports on

There are times in one's life when one is overwhelmed into silent awe and one cannot help but project those moments endlessly. I've had the opportunity of visiting China three times since last December and let me say each occasion has been a magnificent revelation. The instant, perpetually lasting impression is that of an elaborate, sophisticated dynamo churning out immeasurable energy.
The essence of development is the creation of infrastructure that then becomes the launching

Pakistan cricket has been through crisis before, having witnessed some of its worst turbulence in the last decade and a half. But none quite equals the present one in terms of despair, for the opprobrium of the world body is ringing and unmistakable.
Terms of the diktat are humiliating, and the consequence of not abiding indeed with them is harrowing indeed as sanctions stare us in the face.
What the ICC's entire Board has told us with one voice - which means that all its

General-President Pervez Musharraf, now former on both counts, has set up a political party. If and when he comes to Pakistan to stake a claim on political space, it would be interesting to see how he would interact with the army, the institution he once headed and on whose strength he rose to power and exercised it for eight years. As a general he presented to Pakistan his theory of the army's place in the system through an epigram: if you want to keep the army out, bring it in. Does