SPY EYES ANALYSIS

By Nida Afaque The political economic and social climate in Pakistan is topsy turvy. Its longest serving prime minister was disqualified by the Supreme Court last week in a move that suspiciously came about when the CJ’s son was being accused of illegal actions. In the economic sphere,Pakistan’s industry has collapsed while imports continue to increase;circular debt has reached  Rs. 80 billion  while the rate of inflation is over  10% . The power crisis engulfing the nation in darkness has adversely affected industries and businesses. Socially,the masses are experiencing their worst nightmare with rampant insecurity,flawed justice and diminishing sources of income. If domestic turmoil is not enough,the War on Terror has bestowed an unmanageable amount of burden on Pakistan’s law enforcement agencies. The influx of refugees,warfare and foreign intervention has spread the authorities thin. It is in such testing time that political change is often said to emerge....

Much is happening in Pakistan—not all of it is good. While a lot is said and written about all that is wrong the good – little as it is – is mostly ignored. For the first time Pakistan is going about setting the US-Pakistan relationship on some sort of even keel. Usually we have been at the receiving end and have always buckled under US pressure or given in to their demands. Today Pakistan is asserting itself and pointing out to the US that its policy towards Pakistan is wrong and that Pakistan’s concerns and its public opinion do matter. This is happening under a democratic dispensation largely tilted towards the US. The stakes are high – Pakistan faces international isolation, continued economic decline and US-India-Afghanistan collusion in its internal destabilization. Pakistan needs to stay the course regardless of the sacrifices required because an expedient acquiescence to pressure can harm it enormously in the long run. There is light at the ...

There is that story about a bull frog that wanted to be the biggest and kept puffing himself up till he burst. Now everyone knows, of course, that a bubble if it continues to expand must at some point burst and splatter everybody around it. So it is with an empire, real estate or some other kind, that crashes when it has overextended itself or made so many enemies that it cannot handle them. This is what the real estate tycoon Malik Riaz has discovered when for reasons best known to him he decided to go public with information damaging for a particular individual and a specific institution. Inevitably the focus has shifted to him and his activities and the spectrum is widening by the day---in fact by the minute. The fact that meticulous records were kept of all payments, hotel bills, credit card receipts and videos made of hotel rooms and people suggests that there was a definite purpose behind recording the purportedly extorted money. There must have been the idea th...

by Ahmed Quraishi Pakistan’s failed and destructive politics have reached a new height with the Bahria Town case. If anyone thought the restoration of democracy in 2008 after a long break would bring maturity to the system, they were mistaken. What was the deal-breaker between Pakistan and the United States? And does Pakistan’s military establishment really want to eliminate rights activist Asma Jahangir? Last, how should the courts deal with Husain Haqqani? Let’s take a quick look. The Arsalan case: Aside from the details, the case is a new low for Pakistan’s failed politics. This is new evidence proving that a failed and unstable system and immature players are dealing a blow to Pakistan’s internal stability. Can the military be involved? It’s highly unlikely considering the army chief’s vows to stay away from politics, a promise he has so far kept. The list of beneficiaries is long. What the case really demonstrates is that Pakistani politics require a rut...

By Asif Haroon Raja The US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta has emerged as the chief basher of Pakistan. He has been spewing venom against Pakistan from the time he took over as Director CIA. He was the one who advocated making drone as a choice weapon in war on terror and in accelerating drone war in Pakistan since 2009. This is notwithstanding that the final approver is President Obama and he signs  the death warrants. Despite Pakistan's loud protests to put an end to extra judicial killings through drones which kills 97% of innocent people, Panetta arrogantly says that drone strikes would continue. His attitude towards Pakistan, particularly Pak Army and ISI has always been abrasive and hostile. All the  statements  he made on Pakistan as head of CIA and now as Defence Secretary were stinging and threatening. Stiff necked and arrogant by nature, Panetta sees everything in Pakistan with a jaundiced mind. We recall how he behaved after the shocking 2 May stealth ra...

NOTES FROM A SOCIAL SCIENTIST By Dr. Haider Mehdi If you have not watched Francis Ford Coppola’s epic film,  The Godfather , you should. In fact, every Pakistani ought to watch this film. This movie is instructive in many ways in understanding the intricacies of how political influence is bought by money-loaded “Mafioso,” and how the Mafia acquires the power to control political events through corruption, bribing, violence, deceit, concealment, stealth, subterfuge, deception, secrecy, evasion and cover-ups. And on top of that, the narrative of this film is based more on reality rather than fiction – just the way today’s Pakistan’s so-called democracy has turned itself into a “Criminal Empire.” In the land of the “pure” and the “pious,” the entire state and political leadership indulges in open and blatant corruption, bribing, stealing, looting, underhanded dealings, nepotism, lies, cover-ups, defiance against the law and ethical practices, violence against its own citizen...

Ten long years of war have passed in Afghanistan and although it is finally coming to an end, the details of the enemy are still murky. The Taliban are the modern day band of misfits which have occupied the lime light on newspapers, headlines and talk shows. A lack of true understanding about the nature and motives of the Taliban has propagated the formation of stereotypes which have further made it confusing for the common man to understand the war in which thousands of lives and millions of funds have been sacrificed. The nuances in Taliban’s belief and objectives already pose a challenge for policy makers to reach a mutually acceptable deal, in addition to which, the public’s confusion regarding the Taliban becomes another knot to entangle in the yarn of disorder. The aftermath of the Soviet War in Afghanistan left a power vacuum. Local tribes now battled against each other for control of areas. Security deteriorated and many human right violations were committed against wom...

By: Sarah Eleazar It seems lately that Shakespeare’s quote about the world being a stage and all men and women being mere players is playing out literally for our country. The theatrics our top echelons have employed in a choreographed play to the death tournament for power have stopped failing to impress. As the three arms of the State once again descend into the bucket (read Supreme Court) to display their exceptional crab mentality, the question in this round of Crab Olympics is: which crab will get away this time? Private Contractor turned ‘Warren Buffet’ of Pakistan, Malik Riaz Hussein is a name that makes frequent rounds at all sorts of drawing rooms in Pakistan. A multi billionaire at the age of 59, there are few people in the country to match the level notoriety and reputation Riaz enjoys. A one man empire, Malik Riaz is famous for having a finger and toe in every pie that matters: all political parties according to PM Gillani enjoy the beneficence of Riaz; celebrated...