With many internal and external challenges confronting the nation, the new COAS was plunged into a testing situation right from the word “go”. Stepping up his drive to isolate Pakistan diplomatically during the recent “Heart of Asia” Conference in Amritsar, Indian PM Modi’s venom for Pakistan was seen at its worst, he and Ashraf Ghani…
A new Army Chief would normally not warrant special media or public attention in most countries but in Pakistan the situation is a vastly different. The Washington Post says, “for the first time in 20 years, the most powerful official in Pakistan — a U.S. Cold War and anti-terrorism ally in which generals have often…
When Pakistan was rated the second most corrupt country in 1996 by Transparency International (TI), a joke started that Pakistan was actually placed on the first position but the govt persuaded Tl to place Nigeria ahead of Pakistan. We may have had a good laugh then but almost twenty years (and many govts) later, Pakistan…
Noting that Pakistan’s public debt remained very high, the interest bill being higher at current debt level than the country’s entire development budget, IMF President Christine Lagarde pointedly said that the perception of corruption in Pakistan was hurting its prospects to grow. Addressing our immediate political crisis inadvertently (or was it deliberate?), the IMF President…
With around 215000 confidential documents about offshore entities and their secretive off-shore accounts becoming public, the “Panama Papers” became history’s biggest leak ever. Revealing financial and attorney-client information about scores of outright criminals, drug smugglers, etc. current and former world leaders alongwith their close relatives and/or friends, were linked to tax evasion, money-laundering, etc. Having…
Attempting to stall/derail the Supreme Court (SC) enquiry one of the petitioners wanted all 400 or so named in PanamaGate to be tried, Chief Justice (CJ) Jamali dismissed it as a “20 year plan”. Quoting Hazrat Umar (RA) setting a personal example by insisting “the accountability of the rulers is different from others”, the CJ…
Whenever in trouble the Sharifs have always successfully fought for time, delaying things till the problem dies a natural death. This time despite filibustering for months the govt could not (1) sidetrack the PanamaGate revelations, the Supreme Court (SC) took up related petitions on Nov 1 or (2) wriggle out from their treasonous concocted fabrication…
Dear Readers, Moving away from the British monarchical practice, America’s founding fathers devised a system that bestowed responsibility upon the people to select their leader. George Washington was elected in 1789 to become the first U.S. president, since then the right of suffrage has been expanded to cover all citizens over 18. Taking place every…
Over a 100 million TV viewers watched Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump face-off in the first of three US Presidential debates in the evening of Monday, Sept 26. The build-up had been extraordinary, igniting huge emotions for and against the candidates. My friend Frank Neuman, vociferously Republican and therefore pro-Trump, summarized the expectations to be…
Indian hostility and belligerency have brought its relations with Pakistan to its lowest ebb for many years. The recent killing of Kashmiri youth Burhan Wani, sparked the worst violence in Kashmir in six years. Blaming the protests on Pakistan. Indian troops, mostly Hindu soldiers from Mizoram, Nagaland and other eastern states, killed more than 100…
