A reporter’s eye: Inside the Supreme Court
Among heavy contingents of law enforcement agencies and hovering helicopters, a horde of people marched towards the Supreme Court yesterday. As they crossed countless walk-through security gates with special entry cards in their hands, they looked excited about catching a glimpse of the soon-to-be-convicted prime minister. While it is totally in keeping with local tradition to create such a scene, at the contempt hearing yesterday, goras (foreigners) too joined us at the forefront. Inside courtroom number 4, the environment was electric. All seats in the courtroom were filled hours before the proceedings began. Besides lawyers, the room was packed with federal ...
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Using ‘Altaf Bhai’: The joys of studying politics
Being a student of political science comes with handicaps in a country where debate on current affairs and peccadilloes of politicians is ubiquitous, yet awareness of an academic discipline dedicated to the study of politics is scant. There’s one particular incident at Lahore airport that I vividly remember, when being a student of political science got me entangled in a rather bizarre situation. As I walked inside the international departure terminal, I noticed that yet another security check had been installed. Some men in shalwar kameez stood listlessly, as airport security personnel fiercely rummaged through their luggage. Being a ‘laadiss’ from a ...
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A woman at the helm in Thailand
A business woman becoming a politician? No less a prime minister? Whoever heard of such a thing! Thailand’s 2011 elections brought interesting results as Yingluck Shinawatra (former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra’s sister) stepped up as the next prime minister, the first woman prime minister, in fact, to grace Thailand’s political stage. And not surprisingly, most women are very supportive of what they hope will be a positive change. Most people were of the opinion that the men of the country had been given enough chances to run the country but had failed to solve most problems. Thailand had had enough. ...
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HRK: The politics of pretty faces
The media coverage of newly appointed Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar’s Indian tour is proving to be equally offensive either side of the border. Given Khar’s youth and her inexperience, there were already plenty of ‘ifs and buts’ floating among Pakistanis regarding her capabilities with respect to her new role, but it appears the media’s fascination with her wardrobe has trounced all performance related concerns. Indian electronic and print media has recently been reported calling the minister everything from “model-like” (Navbharat Times) and “Pakistan’s Best Face” (Times of India) extending to insinuations about her being “drool worthy” as well ...
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What you need to know about Hina Rabbani Khar
After keeping the slot of Foreign Minister vacant for more than five months, the government has finally woken up and decided to appoint Hina Rabbani Khar as the next Foreign Minister of Pakistan. It will not be an alien territory for Ms Khar, as she has been performing her duties as the Junior State Minister at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs till now. But, there will be an additional set of responsibilities that will come with the promotion. Even though she is familiar with the portfolio, it will be very difficult to speculate, at this stage, how much she would ...
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The bag that worked
Not surprisingly, Hina Rabbani Khar has captured the popular imagination. The bag, the shades, the pearls and the chiffon. No news article about the Pak-India dialogue was complete without a reference to all of them. And while every major news outlet did precisely that on Wednesday, Thursday brought the bashing. Why is the media fixated by the bling, and not the brawn, they asked? Khar-the-celebrity overshadowed Khar-the-politician, they said. The media should differentiate between stars and politicians, they recommended. Why the holier-than-thou attitude, I ask? Besides the exchange of most-wanted terror lists and general accusations, no major breakthrough had been made ...
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Edhi, we expected better from you
We all suffer from occasional bouts of madness. It is a hazard of being a human, a side effect of possessing a mind. We all have thoughts, wishes that cannot and should not be taken seriously. Mostly, we keep these thoughts to ourselves but sometimes, we blurt them out. If we are lucky, not many witness our moment of insanity. However, if you are someone with a fan following, if you are someone who motivates and inspires, someone who has a standing in society, you are expected to refrain from having public bouts of mental diarrhea. What to say then of Abdul Sattar ...
Read Full PostGutsy Marvi steps down…goes solo?
I won’t lie – I’ve often made fun of Marvi Memon’s overzealous emotional style, her long winded breathless sentences without full stops and the almost audible exclamation mark at the end of her sound bytes. At times, I have used her high pitched quotes to add a bit of life to an otherwise dull TV report. More often than not, when I have seen her protesting on the streets I have wondered why a parliamentarian who claims to care so much for the masses, would associate herself with a party whose manifesto seems to focus on regaining power. On Wednesday, as ...
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Abbottabad raid commission, and other wastes of time
While the country is going through one of the most turbulent times in its history, our politicians believe that this is the perfect time to play politics. This time, the politics is of commissions. The raid to kill Osama Bin Laden was embarrassing while totally against the sovereignty of this country. This is something many firmly believe. I am not saying whether it was wrong or right; just that it made us look bad. Now, the smart thing to do would be to launch an investigation in to the incident, to understand what happened and how we ended up in this ...
Read Full PostStop the rhetoric, tell us if we are in the dumps
As we get close to finalising an 18 per cent deficit budget for Pakistan, our institutions are busy bickering with each other rather than thinking, for a second, about how royally screwed we are with regards to our economy. For those of you who are not economists, an 18 per cent deficit is simply ridiculous; normally countries have budgets around the 7-10 per cent marker, where the shortfall of funds is generated through either issuing bonds, cutting government spending or through public borrowing. An economy goes in to panic mode when the deficit hits double digits, but for some reason ...
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