By S. Iftikhar Murshed* Abstract (Other societies have evolved and adjusted with the times but the Islamic world has remained static and is still a prisoner of the past. The opinions expressed by scholars centuries ago still prevail though the Qur’an specifies only a few laws thereby enabling Muslim societies to enact legislation in line […]
Islam and Apostasy Read More »
By Iqbal Ahmad Khan* This resolve, unfortunately, did not last long. Despondency set in as the challenges proved too formidable for an inept and corrupt leadership. The advent of the generals brought a certain measure of order and hope. This too was short-lived. As they assumed greater power, they too joined the looters and plunderers.
Defeating Terror – Lessons From Recent History Read More »
By Saeed Khalid* The world’s sole superpower faced one of its darkest moments when Al Qaeda terrorists turned passenger planes into flying bombs on 11 September 2001. While America’s rage over the tragedy was understandable, the response by launching a massive war effort, first in Afghanistan and then Iraq, is running out of steam. The
Afghanistan: The Case for a United Nations Peace Keeping Force Read More »
By Lt. Gen. (R) Javed Alam Khan* While thinking about the title for this article, I decided to call it “A Blueprint for Victory.” Later I realized that it appears quite immodest and that my friends would pull my leg about it by separating “blue” from “print” or by hyphenating the word. Having read a
A Blueprint for Victory Read More »
By Farhat Taj* Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), on the border with Afghanistan is important in the context of the war on terror, because Al Qaeda and the Taliban have safe havens in the area. Almost all of FATA and parts of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) have been occupied by the Taliban.
A Deconstruction of Some Myths About the Pakhtun Read More »
By Cyril Almeida* The February 2008 elections were not supposed to be a death knell for the Musharraf era. The former general and Pakistan’s president had made clear his intention to stay in office and guide Pakistan’s transition to democracy for at least another five years. But the electorate had other ideas and the PML-Q’s
The Transition to Democracy Read More »
By Shamim Ahmad* Abstract The prevalence of tax evasion in Pakistan is so universal that it defies all guesses, surmises and even scientific research. The result is that the determination of the extent of the evasion can only be conjectural. There is no reliable data available to substantiate the various guesses which vary from 50
The Inequitable Tax Structure Read More »
By Anwar Kemal* Abstract By coincidence, Pakistan’s Economic Survey 2008 – 09 was released on 11 June 2009 just as this article was going to the publisher. The survey indicated that Pakistani’s real GDP growth for the first 10 months of the financial year was estimated at a dismal 2 percent as compared to the
Pakistan’s Economic Problems: Some Non-Conventional Therapies Read More »
By Veena Jha* Abstract The Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) estimates that food crisis persists in around 32 countries of the world. The number of undernourished people in the world has risen from 923 million in 2007 to 963 million in 2008.1 The UN estimates that between 109 million and 126 million
Analysis and Responses to the Global Food Crisis Read More »
By A. G. Noorani* Abstract The Fall and Rise of the Islamic State by Noah Feldman; Princeton University Press; 189 pages; $ 22.95, Islam and the Secular state: Negotiating the Future of Sharia by Abdullahi Ahmed An-Naim; Harvard University Press; 324 pages; $ 35. (Four features mark the quest for an Islamic State. First, it
The Islamic State: A Mirage Read More »
