Corruption farce?
The present era is being called the age of corruption by many in Pakistan. Ranging from the National Reconciliation Ordinance to the growing allegations of corruption within state institutions, the perception of the current regime being highly corrupt has solidified. Despite its dominance in popular discourse, there has been little effort made to understand the global political context in which the anti-corruption rhetoric has developed. It is essential for Pakistanis to understand where the anti-corruption slogan is coming from. Ivan Krastev in his 2004 book titled Shifting obsessions: three essays on the politics of anti-corruption, writes: “It was the new anti-corruption rhetoric ...
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WikiLeaks: Gossip on a global level
We like to pretend that we’re indifferent to it. The fact of the matter, however, is that it exists all around us. Sometimes in the shape of a tete-a-tete, at other instances as an intelligence report or espionage leak, it all boils down to the same idea – information generated across the circles where it has no business being. Simply put, it is just the good old strangely satisfying thing we call gossip. “Log kya kahain gey” – a maxim we’d lived under all our lives, explains perfectly the very human desire to talk, converse, and ...
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Pakistan’s unhealthy focus on US, UK, India
Pop quiz: do you know Pakistan’s Ambassador to Chile, Malaysia, Venezuela, Brazil, or Russia? It is very likely that you don’t and, there is a reason – these countries don’t get adequate visibility in Pakistan. Hussain Haqqani (USA), Wajid Shamsul Hassan (UK) and, Shahid Malik (India) are the few ambassadors that Pakistani media finds relevant, relegating all others to secondary and tertiary positions. Every country has their list of top 10, top 25, top 50, and “rest of the world” often referred to in international parlance as “ROW” but Pakistan’s foreign policy lacks depth and width. At the United Nations in New York, ...
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Forging a roadmap for peace in Afghanistan
General Stanley McChrystal, commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan has once again arrived in Pakistan to “provide an update on International Security Assistance Forces’ operations in Afghanistan,” reads the handout by the American Embassy in Islamabad. Hardly any substantial information leaks from the garrison city of Rawalpindi of the meetings by General Kiyani and his visitors, except for stories filed from Washington by the New York Times or Washington Post. In a few days the papers will report on how much General Stanley McChrystal appreciated the sacrifices of the Pakistan army but it must do more and flush out ...
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