“And how does one keep looking so good when one is so busy?”, this being Information Minister Sherry Rehman’s opening line to Sarah Palin, a politician with no real credentials, and now the Republican Vice-Presidential candidate. If this wasn’t bad enough, President Zardari shook her hand and opened with, “You’re gorgeous. Now I know why...
The floods have caused death, destruction, and misery on a scale never seen before in Pakistan’s history. Unlike the 2005 earthquake in the Northern Areas, the flood of 2010 has spread misery equally in every part of the country. The unprecedented flooding has already affected the lives of approximately 14 million people by wiping out...
It took a two page report and a video on their website by the New York Times to demonstrate to many young people the abysmal state of tax collection in Pakistan. Social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook were awash with outraged tweets and posts of the article which described how only 2.5 million people...
The energy, time and money Pakistan puts into politics, politicking and the art of wheeling-and-dealing blow the mind and the national wallet. Read any publication and there’s a scandal brewing, a politician staging a “dharna” about something, a scam in the works, or a disagreement about something or the other. All the quotes contained in...
We live in strange times in a strange country. Don’t get me wrong, I love Pakistan and have chosen to live here, pay my taxes here and raise my children here. But as a student of political science and history, and an interested observer, I have seen fewer countries more bizarre than us. Approximately 30,000...
I couldn’t bring myself to write my column last week because of the rage I felt at our Government for censoring the Internet. It wasn’t that blocking Facebook or YouTube had brought life to an end but the sheer stupidity of the exercise coupled with the wider implications of censorship for the citizens of this...
Recently whenever people ask me what the funniest Asif Zardari joke I’ve heard, my response is always, “that he is the most successful President in the 63 year history of Pakistan.” I can picture readers cringing, noses wrinkling, and people asking to be passed the sick bag. What makes this nauseating sensation worse for most...
In the late 80’s a pop group called Milli Vanilli stormed the international music scene. Their music was signature 80’s and one of their most popular hits was “Blame it on the Rain”. Milli Vanilli sold millions of records around the world and were rewarded with a Grammy Award in 1990. But the good times...
GHQ is the nerve center of the Pakistani military and is guarded by an Infantry battalion along with a similar number of the Defense Security Guards (DSG). Approximately 1600 military officials work at the GHQ who are responsible for running Pakistan’s military machine. Ten terrorists created mayhem for around 22 hours disrupting normal operations within...
GHQ is the nerve center of the Pakistani military and is guarded by an Infantry battalion along with a similar number of the Defense Security Guards (DSG). Approximately 1600 military officials work at the GHQ who are responsible for running Pakistan’s military machine. Ten terrorists created mayhem for around 22 hours disrupting normal operations within...
It’s Bakra Eid and your neighbor sends you some meat from their goat which they have just slaughtered. You open the door and take the bloody tray. But then you send it right back saying that you didn’t like the cut which was sent over and that the tray was also not acceptable, and the...
The year 2009 was a disaster of businesses across the globe. Precipitated by a financial crisis which began brewing at the beginning of 2008, it turned into a full blown financial tsunami by the beginning of 2009. The rest is history. Businesses found their credit lines dried up, budgets were slashed, people fired, and the...
