Kings and kingmakers: A comment on Najam Sethi’s article on Imran Khan: Here is a quick comment on Najam Sethi’s editorial on Imran Khan (TFT: “Prince who would be King“): It is possible to identify four key issues: An uncritical recycling of the Gallup poll data: Gallup Pakistan is utterly discredited

When armies surrender – by Dr. Niaz Murtaza: This article is not a treatise on military tactics. It does not explain why and when armies throw in the towel on the battlefield. Rather, it analyzes the factors which force politically over-active militaries to ultimately surrender to civilian

Why do private and state-owned campuses in Pakistan remain ideologically polarised? – by Nadeem F. Paracha: Divided they preach A lot of young people wonder why last year Zaid Hamid was chased out from Peshawar University by the students. He had gone there to speak and spread his call for a ‘revolution’ that (not so

Military establishment’s new plan against Asif Zardari and Nawaz Sharif – by Nazir Naji: کوشش پھر سے شروع ہے …سویرے سویرے…نذیر ناجی چند روز پہلے سابق رکن پارلیمنٹ اور اسمبلی (پنجاب اسمبلی) میاں آصف کے ساتھ ایک نئے دوست سے ملاقات ہوئی‘ ان کے سیاسی نظریات سے اندازہ ہوا کہ وہ اسوقت مختلف

Javed Hashmi’s wise words in the National Assembly: Also read: LUBP Archive on Javed Hashmi پاکستان میں کئی تجزیہ کار اس بات پر متفق ہیں کہ ملک کا سیاسی کلچر تبدیل ہو رہا ہے اور دو بڑی جماعتیں پیپلز پارٹی اور مسلم لیگ (ن) اب کی بار

Civil versus political society – by Raza Rumi: Several self-styled analysts on ‘civil society’ have articulated contrarian views about the kind of choices they face, particularly with respect to forging alliances with political parties and avoiding the vigilantism that is the preserve of the extremists. The lawyers’

Pakistani (pro-establishment) media’s war on politicians: Here is a valuable excerpt cross posted from Pakistan Media Watch: Let us review some recent incidents in our own media that have gone without even the slightest reprimand. On 7 October, a reporter for The Nation, Syed Fawad Ali

Defending Politicians- by Mubashir Lucman:

The wait for a messiah: In Pakistan, ‘Go, Musharraf, go!’ makes a better slogan than ‘Clean drinking water for all!’ – by Irfan Husain: Older readers will recognise this mantra from the past: “South Korea stole our first Five-Year Plan.” According to this urban legend, when a Korean was accused of this petty larceny by a Pakistani, he retorted: “Yes, but we implemented

Corrupt politicians and our saviours in army: I am providing below a news report without any comments or editing: Ex-governor’s son-in-law defaulted on Rs 1.8 bn loan Sunday, June 13, 2010 BoP scandal snowballs as NAB digs more dirt By Ansar Abbasi ISLAMABAD: The Bank of

Dangerous diagnosis; clear signs of exhaustion – by Ayaz Amir: Islamabad diary This is premature exhaustion, a government and political dispensation running out of steam and ideas, and nothing going for it but the power of inertia. Musharraf, a bitter comparison, arrived at this stage in four or five

Asif Ezdi: Establishment’s latest weapon against politicians and democracy: Asif Ezdi (whose columns appear in notorious Jang Group / The News indeed) has surfaced as the establishment’s latest tool in its war against politicians and democracy in Pakistan. Pakistan Media Watch has written an article on Mr Ezdi,

Moving beyond a clientelism model of democracy – by Luv Puri: The cross-party consensus on Pakistan’s constitutional reforms is a shot in the arm of the parliament and strengthens the process of democratisation in the country. Democratisation is an answer to the country’s many contemporary challenges, including the fight against

Faith in democracy: A review of political parties of Pakistan – by Nadeem Paracha: An apt analysis by NFP of the political parties in Pakistan and their attributes and religious tendencies: Islam holds an important place in the workings of society and thus politics of Pakistan, a fact even some of the most

Qazi Anwar’s vilification crusade against politicians: Explicit or implicit supporters of military dictatorship in Pakistan, who usually lack significant vote bank in masses and dance to the tunes of right wing establishment, often criticise politicians holding them as solely and predominantly responsible for Pakistan’s failures

Yet another case of multifaceted fraud by our military saviours – by Aamir Mughal: Today I found Dr Shahid Masood and Shaheen Sehbai spinning more lies on ‘Meray Mutabiq’ (Geo TV) with General (retired) Shahid Aziz. I therefore consider it pertinent to cross-post the following article from my blog to LUBP: One more

Our quasi-feudal political parties — by Babar Ayaz: There is a wide demand and supply gap in the political market. The political parties that are ill-prepared, power-centric, self-seeking and have failed to fathom the change cannot meet this yawning gap. Their change and growth is quintessential for

The discreet charm of the bourgeoisie — by Salman Tarik Kureshi: Our captains of industry can justifiably blame inconsistent government policies, bureaucratic corruption, Bhutto’s nationalisations, political instability, bad law and order, infrastructural limitations, the power crisis and so on. But the fact of a powerless and politically inert big bourgeoisie

Congratulations, General Kayani, on defeating ‘bad’ Taliban and ‘bad’ politicians at the same time – by Cyril Almeida: Coming full circle Friday, 12 Feb, 2010 OUR boys in uniform have a spring in their step again. Domestically, they have taken on two enemies and appear to be winning: the civilian government has been reduced to parroting the

Castigating politicians: A sense of gloom and all-pervasive disillusionment and despair seems to have overtaken the country. Since a civilian elected government is at the head of affairs, the anger and frustration of wide sections of the people is turning on

Uncontested dominance – by Cyril Almeida: What makes the army so contemptuous of civilians is the fact that you can only conquer what you understand: while the army thoroughly understands the ways of the politicians, the opposite is anything but true. What does the military-bureaucratic

Mesmerization of Pakistani politics – by Agha Haider Raza: Politics in Pakistan mesmerize me. Not only does one enjoy the daily dose of rhetoric that is spewed from the mouths of our beloved politicians, but the one track mind of those in and out of government baffles the mind.

Ayub Khan’s actions against politicians under EBDO or how to wipe out an entire political class: Facts about Elected Bodies Disqualification Order (EBDO) of 1959, compiled from “The Separation of East Pakistan” by Hasan Zaheer and “Bangladesh Past and Present” by Salahuddin Ahmed When Ayub Khan took power in 1958 one of his main priorities

Army vs politicians…..who is the winner this time? – by Faiz Aman: Posted By: Farhad Jarral The cases of corruption against the politicians have been started once again as according to the plan of the forces who are against the democratic process in Pakistan since 1958. Once again same situation and

Harris Khalique: Awami Party, an alternative, popular political force?: Side-effect Divided we stand Friday, March 20, 2009 Harris Khalique My friend and comrade-in-arms, Ayub Malik is the publisher and one of the editors of Badalti Dunya, a monthly magazine in Urdu with serious social and political content contributed

The story of a picture, which tell us everything about Pakistani politics…: Aik hi saff main kharay hogay geelani o nawaz na koi liberal raha na koi mazhab bardar

Is it fair to compare corruption of Pakistani politicians with corruption of Pakistani Generals?: Ghost of TK writes: I can appreciate the need to tone down the rhetoric re: the military now, but then that rule would give a loophole to those who say, wait for the things to get better before we

Those influenced by the negative propaganda against political leadership in Pakistan must remember that our army leaders are no holy cows.: Habit of dishonesty Thursday, November 06, 2008 Kamila Hyat Throughout his nearly nine years in office, former president Pervez Musharraf spoke of eradicating corruption and loudly proclaimed his own honesty at every available occasion. The report is now surfacing