This marks the first time in Pakistan’s history a civilian government has completed its full term and will transition power to a new civilian government, Pakistani elections this Saturday are complete with hope, democratic fervor and anticipation. Here is a guide to who’s running, and what each party stands for. The Businessman: Nawaz Sharif Party: […]
In preparation of the elections scheduled for next month (amidst talks of postponement), officers in charge of scrutinizing election nomination papers have questioned candidates on their knowledge of religion, as is required by Article 62 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic. Under Article 62, persons seeking to contest in parliamentary elections must display adequate […]
In earlier posts (here and here), I argued that Pakistani politics would be fraught with turbulence in 2013, with one of the key casualties being the fragile détente process that has recently emerged between New Delhi and Islamabad. Two weeks into the year, events are already conspiring to validate this assessment. Pakistan, the most important […]
Democracies feature checks and balances on power, but government branches (in theory at least) are supposed to work in concert to run the country and support the citizenry. This cooperation seems to have broken down in Pakistan, where recently the judiciary and executive clashed over the status of corruption charges against President Asif Ali Zardari. […]
A long summer of political turmoil has begun that makes harder the search for a new equilibrium with Washington A tale of two capital cities in the grip of political uncertainty unfolded in South Asia last week. Islamabad was the scene of a fast-paced soap opera that throws into further doubt the future of the […]
However justified, the public berating of Islamabad has become counterproductive. The comments made by Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta during his swing through South Asia last week once again raise the question of how coordinated the Obama administration’s regional policy is. An earlier post flagged this issue two months ago by noting the curious timing […]
Events lay bare just how strategically isolated Islamabad has become. As my last post noted, the events of the past week show that New Delhi is sitting pretty diplomatically, being courted ardently by both Washington and Beijing. Conversely, they also laid bare just how strategically isolated Islamabad has become. Pakistan’s most recent troubles began with […]
Pakistan’s prospects careen from bad to worse, but there is still some possibility that it might one day evolve in a more liberal and moderate direction Events over the last few weeks have amply demonstrated the growing decrepitude of the Pakistani state, providing fresh justification for its perennial ranking at the top of the world’s […]
The Singh-Zardari luncheon was more productive than many expected. But the bonhomie will eventually run into stark political realities. Although the timing was coincidental and neither man professes the Christian faith, it was appropriately symbolic that Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari broke bread in New Delhi on Easter Sunday. […]
A son of Salmaan Taseer, the liberal governor of the country’s powerful Punjab province who was shot dead by his own security guard in Islamabad in January, has been kidnapped by masked gunmen in Lahore. Taseer’s loss did not end the family’s miseries nor did the tragedy dissuade them to speak up for liberal values […]
The recent tragic assassination of Salmaan Taseer, the Governor of Punjab, must give pause to anyone concerned about the security and stability of the liberal and equalizing views of the government and state of Pakistan. What actually happened here? And why does what happened matter to anyone outside of political Pakistan? The New York Times […]
The WikiLeaks cables so far contain no bomb-shell revelations but are valuable in providing greater texture to Washington’s policy in South Asia and in illuminating the unsolvable conundrums that bear on U.S. and Indian relations with Pakistan.
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