Allergic reactions can range from very mild to life-threatening. Severe allergic reactions require immediate medical attention, but even reactions that are milder should be checked out by a doctor. Continue reading »
Mar 292008
Mar 292008
The writer is a lawyer based in Islamabad. He is a Rhodes scholar and has an LL.M from Harvard Law School
In reviewing the general’s “cliché ridden and boringly boastful autobiography,” The Economist had argued that “General Musharraf comes across as humourless, vain and insecure…Any less than glorious event in his life, after at least a refreshingly sinful youth, Continue reading »
Mar 292008
By “resolutely crushing” the Tibetan protests, China has sparked reactions ranging from disquiet to condemnation the world over. Even New Delhi, which views all separatist movements with suspicion because of its problems in Kashmir and the Northeast, was “distressed” at the “violence in Lhasa,” called upon “all those involved” to “work to improve the situation,” and asked Beijing to “remove the causes of such trouble…” Continue reading »
Mar 292008
Slowly but surely the country is moving away from the dictatorial grip of President Musharraf. His luck and good policies stood him, never betraying him in the first seven years of his reign. One of his main challengers, Nawaz Sharif, was ensconced in a royal palace in Jeddah and later in London. Continue reading »
Mar 292008
He is 94 years old. He is perhaps India’s most widely known English columnist, novelist and translator of Urdu poetry. His remarks are polemical, arrow-straight and honest. Continue reading »
Mar 292008
By Rauf Klasra
ISLAMABAD: Nawaz Sharif and his top leaders were surprised when the two top American officials, Negroponte and Boucher, roaming around in Islamabad, just ignored, or forgot, the future role of President Pervez Musharraf in their meeting in Islamabad. Continue reading »
Mar 292008
By Rauf Klasra
ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif has apparently distributed the key ministries given to his party in the Gilani cabinet among his “family and friends”. Continue reading »
Mar 282008
THE recently concluded OIC meeting focused mainly on what it perceives to be the rising Islamophobia in the world. A report presented at the OIC said, “The Muslim world has created a plan to defend its religion from political cartoonists and bigots.” The report concluded that Islam is under attack and that a defence must be mounted. Continue reading »
Mar 282008
ONCE in a while a judge arrives on the scene to pull the judiciary out of the decadence in which it is stuck. In South Asia this is rare because judges feel safe staying within the precincts of caution and convention. Still, some judges in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh have challenged the establishment, no doubt suffering in the process. Continue reading »
Mar 282008
THESE days Pakistan seems to be one of the most ‘happening’ places in the world. The winds of change have blown back democracy and it is hoped that other positive changes will also take place. A lot of the positive change can be attributed to the media. Coverage of civil society’s resistance and activities of political parties is what created sufficient hype which then led to the change we currently see in Pakistan. Continue reading »
Mar 282008
More commonly, a relatively independent judiciary, a free press and parliamentary debates ensure a degree of procedural freedoms — of speech and association, from arbitrary incarceration and systematic torture — not known in the other systems of power. The margin of substantive freedoms — from hunger and dispossession, illiteracy and vagrancy, etc — tends to be extremely narrow under this system. — Eqbal Ahmad (1980) Continue reading »
Mar 282008
It is necessary to identify convergences and divergences of interests between us and our international friends and factor them into policy. This will be possible only if the state recognises the fact that military power by itself has not made Pakistan more secure and will not do so in future Continue reading »
Mar 282008
* Bank suggests ‘painful’ adjustments to ‘new global reality’, appropriate safety net for poor
* Predicts Pakistan to miss key economic targets this year
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s new government must take urgent action to prevent the country’s strong economic expansion from tipping into crisis, the World Bank (WB) warned on Thursday. Continue reading »
Mar 282008
Democracy did extract its revenge, as Benazir Bhutto predicted, when a grim-faced Pervez Musharraf swore in Yousuf Raza Gilani as prime minister of Pakistan. It was a moment of some history but also a great deal of irony. Continue reading »
Mar 282008
There is a fine line between being persistent in pursuing one’s goals and in becoming such a slave to one’s ambitions that one losses all sense of respectable behaviour. Gen (r) Musharraf and his American allies seem to have no shame when it comes to pursuing their aims, irrespective of the morality or the respectability of the method used. Gen (retired) Musharraf continues to hold on to the presidency even when the public has clearly rejected him and his party. Continue reading »