The writer is former executive editor of The News and a senior journalist with Geo TV.
If the recent storm that TLP leaders have created over the acquittal of Aasia Bibi, blasphemy accused, by the Chief Justice Saqib Nisar-led bench,...
Two months into power and the Imran Khan government has already given a new meaning to the term ‘cross purposes’.
For some, it may be too early to suggest immediate course correction to the Imran government. Their standard response to any criticism directed at...
Like a runaway train, the Imran government continues to hurtle down on the trail of policy bloopers across blunder-land. True, the latest one...
Somewhere in this land of ours, there must be a prodigious factory dedicated to manufacturing holy cows. How else do you explain the endless supply...
Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi’s press conference was twice the duration of his meeting with the visiting US delegation led by US Secretary...
Last week, while responding to a question regarding news about Washington sharing the transcript of the controversial call between US Secretary of...
The first ten days or more of the Imran government are a lesson in how not to conduct foreign policy – on the hoof, in haste, for publicity, and...
Imran Khan's speech after he was elected Prime Minister of Pakistan. ...
There is much focus on the situational curses facing prime-minister-in-waiting Imran Khan, but not enough on his blessings .Indeed issues like a...
The divisive and badly controversial polls 2018 have thrown up a plethora of political trends that will shape the national landscape for decades...
“In order for things to remain the same, everything must change” – Giuseppe Tomasi di LampedusaHere’s the problem: the winning party, the...
The Elections 2018 are unlikely to be a harbinger of hope and peace. These elections are being held on a terrible bumpy and contested ground. This...
Nawaz Sharif is facing his ultimate moment of truth – a do-or-die situation, of the sort that he has never witnessed in his tumultuous career. But...
The closer we are getting to the monumental event of Election 2018, the dirtier becomes the environment in which these polls are to be held. Even...
Forecasting the winners and losers in the upcoming national and provincial elections is akin to trusting prodigious parrots to pick the team that...
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s inexhaustible modern-day reformer, is into doing big things. Some of these are so extraordinary that he calls them...
This country isn’t erupting over the achievements of Kamila Shamsie, the celebrated British-Pakistani author whose seventh novel ‘Home Fire’...
It is possible that many watchers of the country’s political scene may have missed the big inner wave beneath the temporary turbulence that has...
Bow to the truth for its buoyancy. It pops up from strange locations, at odd times, in the weirdest ways possible – to the embarrassment and...
The country’s ruling elite and some sections of the population are in a fit of extreme anger at the way Washington has pushed a hard line on our...
Just when we thought we were done with these issues, Imran Khan has re-opened the almost-settled debate of the merit of Pakistan’s war against...
In the nearly 200,000 years history of our evolution as modern, thinking species, one of the most significant turns came when, between 70,000 and...
Seemingly, Nawaz Sharif is done and dusted. He has been squeezed out of electoral political existence on account of the detailed judicial verdict...
“No understanding of contemporary Pakistan is possible without an historical analysis of the first decade after independence, a period of relative...
It is alright if you have not heard of Nadiya Savchenko. Ukraine is a country located at a bird-fly distance of 2,356 miles from here and in a...
We have a messiah in our midst: the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, Honourable Justice Saqib Nisar. In an amazingly insightful...
Democracy will complete an important climb today as the elections for the Senate chairman and deputy chairman take place, ending the suspense that...
Some things are foretold – and so it is with the conclusion of the FIA’s inquiry into the fantastic claims of a TV anchor about the...
The lessons from the Paris meeting of the Financial Action Task Force last week are very obvious and quite clear. The first is that we cannot tell...
“We have been turned into a frightened society; democratic values and rule of law are not rooted firmly in our collective consciousness; ...
Many years ago, during our training as local reporters and producers for CNN, an expert from Atlanta gave us vital tips on dealing with the twin...
Against the backdrop of fairly abysmal governance levels across the country, there is a strong case for an interventionist, forward-leaning and...
Last week’s drone strike in Pakistan has highlighted yet again the complete dysfunctionality of Washington-Islamabad ties. The news was first...
Anyone who is witness to the Swat Taliban’s rise must have been stunned to watch Sufi Muhammad walk free out of prison and straight onto TV...
Seared souls, hearts rent asunder, we have wailed and moaned like a mother wrenched from her child. We have felt gutted, sapped, burnt and injured...
The inevitable has happened: the Trump administration has moved exactly along the lines that almost everyone in Washington and some of us here had...
It is a new year. As is the wont, there is great interest in knowing how this will turn out to be for a country that has become predictable only in...
Pakistan’s relations with the US are facing their moment of truth. Surely, this is not the first time such a moment has arrived; nor shall this be...
One of the biggest myths of our times is that the Supreme Court is the last bastion against organised corruption and, with sword and sickle in hand,...
Here is a much-asked question: what to expect in the months ahead in Pakistan’s seedy politics? There can be several answers to the query, and all...
Some are calling it a ‘collective squeeze’. Others name it ‘triple stranglehold’. Yet others describe it as a ‘nut-cracker situation’....
Let us admit it. It is not the fault of the Tehreek-e-Labaik Ya Rasool Allah that the millions of citizens of this country that commute between...
If the last fortnight or so contained small seeds of hope that the current political crisis may be winding down a notch or two, more recent...
Just a few weeks ago, Nawaz Sharif looked besieged and flailing. While his situation remains precarious, he seems to have regained his...
Last Friday’s brutal and brazen attack on The News reporter Ahmad Noorani has engendered deep fears about the future of free media in...
There was a time when no debate on serious matters involving core national interests was complete without the word ‘strategic’. Used to...
The visit of the interagency delegation from the US to Pakistan following the meeting between Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and US Vice...
We are fast becoming an island under attack from an endless tsunami of fake news, fraudulent analyses, and fraudulent theories. The rising tide has...
Countrymen, patriots and the rest of Pakistanis! Time and tide have brought on your doorstep two joyous bundles of news after a very long time. It...
