S Iftikhar Murshed Pakistan has endured more than its fair share of tribulations since its emergence in 1947 but seldom has the country been more bruised and humiliated as it was by the events in Abbottabad on May 2 and the subsequent attack at the PNS Mehran base in Karachi. Tragedy has visited the nation [...]
Dr Farrukh Saleem Talk about extremism. More than 72 million Pakistanis make Rs100 or less per day. And yet, Budget 2011-12 has allocated Rs5.5 million per day for foreign tours of the president and the prime minister of the Islamic Republic. Imagine; if our president and the prime minister decide to stay home for a [...]
AHMAD ZAMAN KHAN Article XXIV of the General Agreement on Tariff and Trade (GATT) permits discriminatory trading arrangement among member nations of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). Following this article, member countries are now focusing to develop bilateral PTAs, RTCAs and FTAs tariff reduction to each other. As of July 2010, some 474 RTAs, counting [...]
Ayaz Amir Corps commanders? Our guardians seem more like cry commanders these days, wearing their anger and hurt on their sleeves and refusing to come out of the sulk into which they went after Abbottabad…a place destined from now on to be less associated with Major Abbott and more with that warrior of Islam from [...]
HUZAIMA BUKHARI If one is thrown into circumstances that force him to make a choice between the proverbial devil and the deep blue sea or between evil and lesser evil, or between Scylla and Charybdis, or between a rock and a hard place, what would it be? Indeed, the one that is less painful would [...]
Dr Muzaffar Iqbal Pakistan has a strange history of strongly directed, self-centred, military rule followed by a democratic drift into an abyss; it is, once again, in the midst of a drift, like a ship without a captain. If logic dictates historical necessity, then the next military coup should not be too far. This is [...]
Dr Qaisar Rashid Mohammad Ali Jinnah sought the division of British India on the basis that British India was united not because of its political oneness but because of its administrative unity which was enforced by a unitary and centralised administrative structure of the state. Otherwise, Jinnah argued, at the political plane there existed more [...]
Roedad Khan If you want to know what happens to a Third World country when it enters Uncle Sam’s embrace, don’t visit Africa or Latin America. Look at Pakistan. Like millions of my countrymen, I feel a deep antipathy toward the “Yankees” who, with the help of power-hungry generals and corrupt politicians, have turned independent, [...]
SYED IMTIAZ ABBAS HUSSAIN Credit goes to Finance Minister for presenting a reasonable national budget 2011-2012 under the given circumstances in spite of many odds. Budget was announced in line with previous practice of preparing stereo-type budgets. If the politicians are expecting something different, it will be their mistake because even they have done the [...]
AZAM IMAM It was a pleasure reading the article of Alistair Burt MP, Minister for South Asia, House of Commons, United Kingdom published. We thank him very much for extending all the possible help needed to Pakistan in the recent floods. As mentioned in your interview, Pakistan needs support from the UK, European Union and [...]
