BAAGHI Columns
Presidential immunity vs selective accountability
Appeared as my weekly column BAAGHI in Daily Times on Monday January 23, 2012 Umpteen talk shows on 24/7 ‘breaking news’ media in Pakistan tell us almost daily how bad is democracy, how this democracy is worse than the dictatorships we have had, etc. TV presenters and reporters show little care for facts-based evidence to [...]
Friends, Countrymen, Lend Me Your Ears!
This was originally published by Daily Times on Monday January 16, 2012 as my weekly column BAAGHI Benazir Bhutto once said about democratic governments in Pakistan that they might be in office but have never been in power. An unbridled army has always been in the driving seat aided by the judiciary, bureaucracy and the chosen [...]
Do not accuse the apex court please!
As appeared in Daily Times on January 9, 2012 as BAAGHI, my weekly column. Asma Jahangir took many by surprise when she refused to appear for Husain Haqqani in the memo case before the judicial commission made by the Supreme Court (SC). More surprising were her blunt statements about the judiciary privileging the ‘establishment’ (a [...]
Where is judicial independence, my lords?
This piece appeared in Daily Times on Monday January 2, 2012 as weekly column BAAGHI The apex court’s short judgement in the memo case last Friday left many stunned and shocked. The petitioners could neither prove any violation of fundamental rights under Article 184(3), as their petition claimed, nor could they prove former ambassador Husain [...]
Remembering Benazir Bhutto, personally!
Published in Daily Times on Monday December 26, 2011 as weekly column BAAGHI “Is she okay?” I was screaming at the top of my voice on the phone with my husband while madly driving towards General Hospital, Rawalpindi on December 27, 2007. “It is over, Marvi,” my husband cried and the line disconnected. Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto, [...]
MemoGate: Public Interest or Political Interest?
Published in Daily Times on Monday December 19, 2011 as weekly column BAAGHI When Nawaz Sharif decided to file a petition in the Supreme Court against whosoever had written a supposedly treasonous memo to Admiral Mike Mullen of the US, he was probably in a great hurry. Not only did he forget that the matter [...]
Give Peace a Chance? Thank but No Thanks!
Published in Daily Times on Tuesday December 13, 2011 as my weekly column BAAGHI Pakistan’s ‘government’, it seems, is well on its way to ‘give peace a chance’ in compliance with the declaration of an unelected All-Parties Conference (APC) convened by the prime minister in September this year. The otherwise ‘hawks’ when it comes to [...]
Memogate: The Bigger Picture
This appeared in Daily Times on Tuesday December 6, 2011 as my weekly column BAAGHI In an op-ed in a British paper, a man claims to have communicated a message from a diplomat to the American establishment. After an aggressive media trial, the diplomat in question has to resign while the heat approached the head [...]
Let us tell NATO, "No More!"
This was originally written as my weekly column BAAGHI and appeared in Daily Times on Tuesday November 29, 2011 The anger in Islamabad is natural and understandable. The early morning attack on Pakistan’s two border security posts by NATO aircraft left nearly two dozen soldiers dead and several injured. Pakistan continues to claim (till Sunday [...]
