Opinion
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Disasters, dengue and local government
The net effect of collapsed local administration is that we can neither manage disasters nor fight epidemics.
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Failure to harness our wind energy potential
Policies regarding energy generation are more than adequate, however, problem lies in its implementation.
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India cannot always be at odds with Pakistan
India's FO and the NSA are often seen at loggerheads with the prime minister’s office on relations with Pakistan.
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Speaking Bengali in Dhaka
In Bangladesh, history is not something you read in books, but a living thing that constantly whispers in your ear.
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In memoriam
We do not mourn our dead. They receive no memorials and no tributes. To us they are dead and gone.
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America’s political landscape
Ceding political initiative to opponents, Obama has been pushed into compromises that upset his core constituency.
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The USIP-JI report and ad hominem critics
The USIP-JI report participants agreed that debate in Pakistan was contradictory and inconclusive.
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Zulfiqar (Mirza) a double-edged sword?
Only glitch is that Ali’s sword was not double-edged — the Arab sword was single-edged and curved, it had two heads.
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The Jinnah we don’t want to know
We have been trying to clad Jinnah in an identity we wish to assume for ourselves — an overt religious identity.
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Norms, values and democracy
The urge for equitable, representative polity dates to ancient times in areas and people which constitute Pakistan.
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Floods —Pakistan needs help
The Pakistani community in UK has always been at the forefront whenever Pakistan has faced any calamity.
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Naushervani tombs
Naushervani rulers of Kharan state claim the tombs as their family burial, but gazetteer puts it as Mazar-e-Nikodar.
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An open letter to the Chief Justice on Karachi
You are requested to please order ‘across the board’ and total deweaponisation of all weapons licensed or otherwise.
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Heading straight for the abyss
Failed policies of Pakistani leaders pitted the country against neighbours, friends, financiers, even each other.
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A ‘disruptively better’ capitalism?
Umair Haque, a Pakistani heading the Havas Media Lab, in London, has tackled the subject in a new way in his book.
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The making of the modern maulvi — IV
‘Modern maulvi’ display repugnance towards people aspiring education, improve lives and called them ‘upstarts’.
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The long pot-holed road
The Objectives Resolution denied all Jinnah had stood for, plunging Pakistan into a morass of religious ideology.
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Time to abolish the ATCs
One of the motives for establishing the court was to deter political violence in Karachi but,it seems to have failed.
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Failing private investment
Deindustrialisation in Pakistan may be arriving earlier than it makes economic sense.
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Ramazan’s encounter with westernisation
The debate about the increasing use of ‘Ramadan’ instead of ‘Ramazan’ took an inevitable turn in the holy...
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Local governments et al
The local government, however, is a live issue with an ever increasing possibility that this too may slip.
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Two-Nation Theory or TNT?
Two Nation Theory is like the scaffolding, which is dismantled once the building has gone up.
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A solution for coping with the floods
In many low-lying parts of the world where flooding is routine, people build homes on stilts, houseboats, or rafts.
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Secularism doesn’t equal tolerance
In my experience, Pakistan is a unique society where most people get offended if you don’t agree with their opinion.
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Plan A or plan banana?
If Zardari is in control, then Mirza makes sense, if not, then we are witnessing a free-for-all in cuckoo land.
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A road much travelled — II
Then, as now, events in Peshawar seemed to be held hostage by the tribal belt, which were masters unto their own.
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Do we still need army intervention?
If the regular paramilitary forces cannot prevent the homicides, government have no option but to turn to the military
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Real devolution
Without sufficient taxation powers, provinces will never have the funds to effectively run subjects being devolved.
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Dancing for joy? Haw hai!
Religion is not culture. Yes, the two get mixed, but argument that there is one way of following religion is false.
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Homosapiens too
Enmasse culture of incalculable hatred is whipped up and promoted to benefit from the frenzy thus generated.
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The genie is out
Mirza may have helped the Zardari/Malik duo to achieve the end they sought.
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The state in South Asia
The South Asian populations will remain young for several more decades while those in the West will age rapidly.
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A case of integrity and ethics
We cannot rule out the role of others in the run for the AG position becoming a ‘source’ for the media to malign Rana.
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Violence and democracy
Resisting violence is a battle for the human mind, involves defeating the appeal on which the violent group relies.
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Man on fire
Dr Mirza was successful in creating one of the most compelling spectacles of our already colourful political history.
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The East is red, in Dhaka
For the first time, next week, Delhi will dismantle Indian textile sector’s protectionist walls towards Bangladesh.
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Why not have two Eids in one country?
In my view, most of the time, Eid in KP used to be an expression of Pakhtun ethnic identity or sub-nationalism.
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Do foreign secretaries have brains?
Can foreign policy of a mid-level economically weak state developed without “Political and Intellectual Leadership”?
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Place names — II
Pakistani travel writers lack the background knowledge to write about their travels, end up destroying history.
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The making of the modern maulvi — III
Supremacy of Sunni theology over Shia or other sects within Islam was and still is,considered as much a settled affair
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Adjustment with an inhuman face
In this inflationary environment, development expenditure in 14 out of the 17 poorly defined pro-poor sectors declined
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Pakistan and Afghan reconciliation — III
Pakistan's safeguard in an Afghan reconciliation is our assistance and assurance to not permit foreign interference.
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God save us from the experts
I don’t agree that questions like whether women are competent to lead men in prayer require expert analysis.
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Building a new civil society
The lack of contact within even small localities is adding to the deterioration of the social fabric of the country.
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Is Urdu a warlike word?
Urdu is definitely not a jihadi language although the word Urdu evokes many embarrassing associations.
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A tripartite arrangement
Public policy choices should be made in context of the 3 large countries of mainland Asia-China, India and Pakistan.
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Pakistan and Afghan reconciliation — I
It would be in Pakistan’s interest to canvass vigorously for the maintenance of foreign assistance to Afghanistan.
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The ‘ganwaar’ politician
Fact is, just because I’m literate didn’t make me less corrupt.
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Foreign operations
Inviting the military is in principle an appeal identical to the familiar ‘doctrine of necessary’.
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Development and the environment
Economic growth must be redefined in terms of quantitative environmental costs of producing and consuming commodities.

















































