Pak Tea House » Entries tagged with "political parties"
Why Some Liberals Are Supporting Imran?
Raza Habib Raja Most dangerous are those charismatic politicians who are financially honest, dedicated but ideologically right-wing reactionaries. Most careless are those supporters (of the above category of politicians) who are just looking at the first set of attributes while completely overlooking the second. Most sinister are those forces that are propping up such politicians. Most short sighted are those political parties who claim to be ideologically against such politicians but are secretly delighted at the turn of events and may even be supporting the sinister forces. Most hypocritical are those political parties who were once abusing the politician but now are “congratulating” him and calling his show a “fresh” breath of change. Well, for a guy who hates conspiracy theories, I have fallen to the temptation and chalked out one above. If all of you … Read entire article »
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New Social Contract to Save Pakistan
By Dil Nawaz Sitting in the relative safety of “Little Pakistan” in Bradford these questions may seem little more than an intellectual luxury but hand on heart these questions have given sleepless nights and nightmares for the future of a country which gave us everything including its beautiful diversity. That this article is being penned with a heavy heart would be a huge understatement. We have talked about, discussed and analysed the catastrophe that has struck Pakistan again after three years. One of the brightest Pakistanis [Shaheed-e-Pakistan Salman Taseer] is gunned down by a demented foot soldier of the forces of darkness that have clouded this beautiful land almost constantly for the past thirty years. … Read entire article »
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The Dilemma Of Ethnic Politics
By D. Asghar It is often debated that why political process is so weak in a country as old as Pakistan. Yes the direct and indirect military intervention is one of the primary reasons, but the poor performance of political parties, must share the blame as well. The country and its population is bitterly divided on ethnic and in same cases, arguably on religious lines. This division impacts the political parties to a great extent, as what are the political parties, a reflection of the sentiments and views of the general populace. Sadly right after its inception, the founding political party, The Muslim League has been divided and subdivided into so many factions and branches, denoted by an alphabetic letter that it is hard to keep up with who represents which faction. … Read entire article »
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Reforming the legislators – on the fake degrees
Raza Rumi The debate on fake degrees has captured the middle class imagination of Pakistan’s mainstream media. True that lying and misrepresenting facts is not acceptable. Yet, discriminatory laws against the political elites are not kosher either. The debate on the issue remains sensationalist, purist and devoid of the larger context of Pakistan’s democratic history. Each era of our existence has witnessed such campaigns. In the 1950s laws to screen out the corrupt politicians was launched with much fanfare. It was a clear tool for the unelected institutions to tame and manipulate the political class. In the 1960s such a process was institutionalized and Pakistan reeled under the ill-effects of authoritarianism leading to the break up of the country in 1971. The establishment continued the policy throughout the 1980s and we witnessed the … Read entire article »
Filed under: Judiciary, Pakistan, Politics, public policy, Society
Pakistani reform: the task ahead
Raza Rumi Pakistan has crossed a major milestone last week by achieving a historic consensus on the 18th Amendment with 105 clauses, additions and deletions to the Constitution. The distortions inserted by the military rule have been done away with. Political elites this time, however, have gone a step further and improved the state of provincial autonomy. Perhaps this is where a civilian negotiation and democratic politics of compromise has been most effective. Who would have thought a few years ago that this was achievable? There were many skeptics who thought that the amendments might not be approved. However, the ‘corrupt’ and ‘incompetent’ politicians have proved everyone wrong. Leaving aside the discourse of corruption, the NRO, and a vociferous media campaign against the President, the achievements in the last one-year by all … Read entire article »
Filed under: Constitution, Democracy, Liberal Democratic Pakistan, North-West Frontier Province, Pakistan, Politics, public policy, state
Democracy – the only option
by Raza Rumi Much has been elaborated on the binding constraints faced by Pakistani democracy. Conventional wisdom suggests that the civil-military imbalance has left little space for democratic institutions to grow and flourish. There can hardly be any disagreement with this point of view. In fact, decades of centralised martial rule have resulted in the militarisation of the society to such an extent that one can hardly discuss anything pertaining to Pakistan without a mention of … Read entire article »
Filed under: Pakistan
A glaring omission in the PPP Manifesto
by Feisal H. Naqvi Do you know about Webcop? No? Well, don’t worry. The People’s Party does not know anything either. The only problem is this; your lack of knowledge is understandable: the PPP’s ignorance is criminal. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Citizens, Democracy, Labour, Pakistan, Politics
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