Category: Opinion

A somewhat bumpy democratic transition continues to create uncertainties that allow desperate elements to disrupt the constitutional path to stabilisation. There are ideological, political, strategic and institutional paradoxes that distort political processes and make the state look like a ‘failing state’ – often described so in terms of failures of governance. What are the ailments…

Defying all predictions, all norms of decency, Washington’s establishment and the forces of ‘status quo’, and by running a racist, xenophobic, misogynist and anti-immigration/globalisation viciously populist campaign, a maverick populist outsider Donald Trump won the US elections. Has the world again changed? Will he ‘Make America Great Again’ – and on whose expense? Is it…

News of Donald Trump’s victory prompted hundreds of boisterous young Americans to gather outside the White House. But they were there not to celebrate. Instead, the overwhelming majority were carrying protest posters: ‘Welcome to Hell’, ‘We stand with the Muslims’, ‘We are for the Immigrants’. Some university students expressed disappointment with tears, other climbed atop…

‘Tis all a chequer-board of nights and days Where Destiny with men for pieces plays Hither and thither moves, and mates and slays And one by one back in the closet lays.’ — Omar Khayyam DHARNA 2016 has petered out in a somewhat unexpected manner, although not wholly unpredictably, with less harm being done to…

n the two states tug of war the Kashmiris bleed States are heartless creatures. The ruling establishments claim that their policies are to serve the people but more often in practice these are hollow claims. People’s benefit is only the byproduct of some of the policies of the states ruling classes. Many a time’s right…

  I write these lines not as a politician or a chief minister but as a common citizen of Pakistan. Barely 24 months back, we had the infamous Islamabad dharna. Once you cut through the noise and bellicose rhetoric, its only contribution was delaying the launch of the historic CPEC, which is already proving to…