Editorials

On Wednesday, the first step was taken towards the extension of provincial autonomy by devolving five ministries to the provinces. This was in accordance with the letter and spirit of the 1973 Constitution which over the years had been beaten out of shape by successive military rulers who strongly believed in a strong centre and introduced constitutional amendments which deprived the basic law of its federal spirit. The exercise conducted by Musharraf in the name of devolution had

Times are tough and this is no country for old men. Condemned to destruction are states that respond inadequately to the challenges of the time. What to say, then, of states that are not even at par with responses that are already being jettisoned by the world at large? Case in point: the Pakistani government's demand to gag those leaking information to websites like WikiLeaks and to take stern action against officials who were responsible. As if they could just be hauled up and put

The addition of two ministers of state to the federal cabinet at a time when five more ministries are being devolved to provinces under the 18th amendment is highly unreasonable. All the more so when the country is facing unprecedented fiscal constraints and pressure is mounting on it to cut down non productive expenditure from the IFIs as well as from State Bank of Pakistan which has held increased government lendings from banks responsible for the double digit inflation. It is clear

What a top military official told a group of media persons underlines some of the paradigm issues faced by the government and army in their interaction with the US, Afghanistan and India. Pakistan is not taken on board when the US and its Nato allies formulate the Afghan policy despite the fact that this policy has an immediate and direct impact on the law and order, economy and people of Pakistan. Islamabad is, however, blamed for the consequences of the blunders committed by policy

Don't expect any hurrahs from the banking community on the State Bank's latest interest rate hike. And don't expect the central bank to care what the bankers say. It has enough on its plate already. Facing vast inflationary pressures and more pressure still from a government that seems to think that it is the monetary, not fiscal policy that causes inflation, a couple of angry bankers are far removed from what the Governor would be thinking about right now.
On top of Mr Shahid

Terrifying for the US, it is like having one's innermost thoughts revealed unto the world at large. To create an analogy, confidential correspondence between civil servants are the innermost thoughts of the state. Unarticulated, granted, but forming the very basis of its actions. If the despatches were not intentionally leaked, as conspiracy theorists will often surmise, the US diplomatic establishment would be feeling, for lack of a better word, naked right about now.
The leaks

There is enough evidence available now to indicate that but for the superpower hubris on the part of the Bush administration, Taliban leadership could have been persuaded in 2001 to gradually get rid of Osama bin Laden and, with further pressure from the international community, to tone down its extremist hype. Confident of the highly lethal and devastating war machinery at his disposal Bush thought he could achieve its objective through military action alone. He even agreed to

The Indians have enough reason to be angry. The Mumbai attacks were one of the most coordinated and protracted terror attacks of recent times. It has become what to measure other attacks by; today, when intelligence operatives speak of similar threats to a city, as they are about London at the moment, they refer to the prospect as Mumbai style attacks. This would not be lost out on the perpetrators of the said carnage. Spectacle and symbolism was all that they sought and that is what

Totally unnecessary statements by certain quarters, keen to stand up and be counted, have created complications for Aasia, who was sentenced to death for blasphemy, instead of helping her. A number of Muslim religious parties, in search of a cause, have taken to the streets threatening to unloose anarchy if the woman was to be pardoned. A presidential spokesman has, meanwhile, maintained that no papers for pardon have so far been received by the Presidency.
The sentence against

The issue of the disappearance of 11 prisoners from Adiala jail has caused a highly undesirable confrontation between the SC and three top security agencies. The controversy is likely to drag the Punjab administration also into the conflict as its Home Department had taken the stand that the prisoners had been taken away from the jail by the agencies which is a violation of the law. The two-point stand taken by the chiefs of the ISI, MI, and IB is that the prisoners are not in their

At the ongoing Asian sporting spectacle, the Pakistani athletes surprised us by producing a golden treble. So steep has been the fall of Pakistan sports that such a performance was indeed unanticipated. That explains why the sense of wonder and unadulterated joy is spread not just amongst the enthusiasts but across the whole country. For a nation so deprived of good news from any quarter, this undeniably is something to cheer and take pride in. The two silver and three bronze medals

What Advocate General Punjab told the Supreme Court on Wednesday constitutes an indictment of the provincial government. Punjab police, he said, was not in control of anyone and had "established their own state within a state". So far one had read reports about financial mismanagement forcing the provincial government to take recourse to substantial bank loans and call off the 'cheap bread' scheme' after spending billions of rupee on the unsustainable project. One had also come across

A party's position over the reformed GST has become a litmus test, of sorts, for its political expediency. At the moment, it is an open secret in the power corridors of Islamabad that the debate on the RGST is anything but a debate on the RGST. The snickering is audible in the Press Gallery, that abode of the cynics, in the parliament when the RGST issue comes up and legislators start making passionate pleas on behalf of the "people". All the other, more innocent voices in the press

Gen Kayani has announced the formation of a high level enquiry committee to probe into reports about an NLC scam involving two Lt Generals and one Major General causing loss of billions of rupees to the national exchequer. Reports about the scam have been appearing in the media for nearly a year now. Meanwhile, no notice was taken of the matter by the army and when Gen Kayani belatedly spoke on the issue a few weeks back, he didn't go beyond clarifying that the NLC was not a military

It reads like a joke. And it is, with the US being the butt. A shopkeeper from Quetta, allegedly, masqueraded as a senior Taliban leader, negotiating with senior Nato officials and the Karzai government, pocketing a sum that a Western diplomat would not describe as anything other than "a lot". The placebo effect, as it is called in medicine, was also hilarious; there was an actual feeling amongst the Western military presence in Afghanistan that peace talks were going well precisely

PPP's bull in the china shop Rehman Malik, who is never tired of stepping into areas where wiser men fear to tread, has this time offended the Foreign Office by an indiscreet statement. The FO has publicly distanced itself from a stand taken by the Interior Minister implying that India was not involved in terrorist acts on Pakistan's soil. He has been told that this could be his personal opinion but not Islamabad's known stance on the matter. Last week, Rehman Malik was snubbed by

After quite the hullabaloo, the Senate body has passed the RGST Bill. Through extension, one assumes, the Senate will also pass it. Moving on from there, a passage by the National Assembly is inevitable as well, since the players involved are going to behave in a similar fashion in the lower house; some will abstain, others will support. The RGST Bill, much to the ire of many, will see the light of day.
But it was anything but an easy ride. The government was between the rock and