These and other such notions about life and society in Swat are common since the advent of mullah insurgency there four years back. From the day Maulana Fazlullah began his sermons on his FM radio, Swat has been witnessing a decline in the quality of

How often have the Zionists, with delightful malice of the strong, accused the Palestinians — using the words of Abba Eban — that they “never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity?”

First, he laments how the people of Pakistan have been ignored and even subjugated by Pakistan’s establishment. This follows from his earlier remark in which he underlines that politics of the country has been a struggle between democratic forces and

We joined these alliances for a limited objective of getting some power to protect ourselves from the Indian threat and, if possible, to get Kashmir. There was nothing common between the two objectives. As a result, our role within the alliances was

This transition has finally taken place after nine years during which the political and administrative institutions of civil rule were subjected to enormous attrition. Musharraf’s aim was the fragmentation of all sources of opposition or resistance

— Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh

In this article I propose to discuss the question of business corruption as an example to illustrate my point. It is not as much the question of pursuing investigations into the wilderness of malpractices in business and politics, as it is of

That operation has become the object of some of the most intense conspiracy theorising even by South Asian standards. Some say it was all an elaborate hoax designed to scare our western allies into backing Musharraf. Another theory is that the

midst of massive controversy, confusion and chaos. The former commando-president’s departure from Pakistan’s turbulent political stage couldn’t be more dramatic, leaving behind a trail littered with myriad pieces.

These are the wages of “learned helplessness” and tolerating one-man’s dictatorial rule for eight long years. Learned helplessness, as demonstrated by empirical data in 1965 by psychologist Martin Seligman, arises from apathy. Once a person knows he

And a change of system is always violent. Its soft side comes only after it is secure, after it has been accepted by the main section of the population concerned. As Marx put it: ”L’arme de la critique ne saurait remplacer la critique des armes.”(The

However, like many freedom fighters before him Mugabe didn’t prove to be an able nation-builder; nor could learn to recognise that a leader doesn’t have an indefinite welcome, certainly much less so if he stays at the pinnacle of power for too long.

––Machiavelli, Discourses on the First Ten Books of Titus Livy.

Both history and modern experience tell us that highly unequal societies also tend to be highly corrupt as the state machinery and laws there virtually serve the interests of ruling elites. Pakistan, being one such society, has suffered far less from

It would be useful to refresh our memory about how General Musharraf had outlined his plan to retire from his military position and embark upon his new role as a civilian ruler of a controlled democracy. The Bush-Cheney administration was of the view