Tag Archives: Pakistan

Facilitating illegal activities such as money-laundering and tax evasion, many of Pakistan’s laws prevent the authorities from taking meaningful action against the culprits. Mian Nawaz Sharif's indictment indicates a change may be in the offing but maybe it is too early for anyone to start celebrating.

While accountability cannot happen overnight in Pakistan, things seems to be changing. The Supreme Court verdict explicitly damning former prime minister Nawaz Sharif for his recurring penchant for untruths and evading facts is most refreshing.

Tom Price's resignation may mean an end to his political career, but it reinforces the trust of millions of voters in the American democracy. What can quasi democracies like Pakistan learn from this episode?

India is trying to pin Pakistan down in domestic conflicts, as it expands its influence through trade with Asia-Pacific and the rest of the world.

Nawaz Sharif’s disqualification has a much larger impact beyond him and his family, a challenge not only to the judges but to all people of Pakistan about how they want to live their lives and to run their state.

Islamabad is extremely suspicious of Donald Trump’s South Asia policy because it gives an open cheque to India for mounting a double front against Pakistan.

President Trump has embraced deeper US involvement in Afghanistan in a military campaign he once slammed as futile. Though touted as a conditions-based regional move towards a political solution, the new plan indicates little innovation.

When legislators, bureaucracy businessmen, etc are prosecuted, they do not try to disprove their guilt, their only defense is to direct public opinion by pointing fingers towards the two indispensable pillars of the State, the Judiciary and the Armed Forces.  A workable legal framework must be formulated by Parliament to remove the ambiguities and bring these into the ambit to give accountability credibility and true meaning.

In Pakistan judicial accountability has largely been limited to the subordinate judiciary. An independent and incorruptible judiciary can convincingly dispense justice and hold persons accountable only if it carries out self-accountability.

Beijing has literally pulled Pakistan out of a generally hostile international environment through the CPEC.