Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Aasim Sajjad Akhtar
It is now old news to observers of the press in this country that the private media is concerned not with protecting the public interest but with maintaining its ratings. There can sometimes be an incidental overlap between these two ...

Saturday, June 04, 2011
Aasim Sajjad Akhtar
The abduction and brutal murder of journalist Saleem Shahzad is yet another indicator of the acute sense of desperation that has permeated our shadowy corridors of power. The game is up, yet our king-makers insist on raising the ...

Thursday, February 03, 2011
Aasim Sajjad Akhtar
The Raymond Davis and Mumtaz Qadri affairs continue to monopolise public debate in this country, and predictably so. The ideological fault lines that divide mainstream society – and I use the term mainstream intentionally given that ...

Friday, November 05, 2010
Aasim Sajjad Akhtar
The media continues to polarise opinion in Pakistani society. On the one side are those who insist that the media – and particularly television journalism – has started to play a revolutionary role in mobilising the public against ...

Friday, August 20, 2010
Aasim Sajjad Akhtar
As the magnitude of the flood-induced calamity dawns upon the world, more and more vaunted international aid agencies are coming out with promises of financial support. Whether or not all of the pledges being made will actually ...

Wednesday, July 07, 2010
Aasim Sajjad Akhtar
The predictable calls for a fresh bout of military operations rang out loudly following the dastardly attack on Data Darbar last week. For the best part of a decade a captive public has taken at face value the claim that 'terrorism' ...

Wednesday, March 03, 2010
Aasim Sajjad Akhtar
Some days ago it was reported in this newspaper that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had granted leeway to the government of Pakistan in curbing its fiscal deficit and permitted an increase of Rs130 billion in the defence ...

Monday, November 16, 2009
Aasim Sajjad Akhtar
Some six months ago I wrote a critique of the media on these pages for not abiding by professional journalistic ethics in its coverage of the military action in Malakand. Among other things, I emphasised how the daily Inter-Services ...

Saturday, September 19, 2009
Aasim Sajjad Akhtar
It appears the verbal sparring between the PPP and the PML-N that erupted in the wake of the Brigadier Billa revelations has ebbed, at least for now. Good. At the best of times this country has not been able to afford the two biggest ...

Saturday, August 08, 2009
Aasim Sajjad Akhtar
In recent months an increasingly bitter feud has intensified between members of the secular progressive political family in Pakistan. For a long time the conflict was latent but the events leading up to and culminating in the ...