Author: Syed Sharfuddin

  • Interpreting Article 63-A of Pakistan Constitution on the Disputed Result of the Punjab CM Election and various Supreme Court Judgements of 2022.

    Syed Sharfuddin* Guess what is the most important point of tomorrow’s session of the Supreme Court (SC) (25/7/22) in consideration of petition No 22/22 dated 22 July 2022 – case of Ch Pervez Elahi vs Deputy Speaker of Punjab Assembly. The 3-member bench of the SC will consider whether under Article 63-A of the Pakistan […]

  • Wavela: Observations of an Overseas Pakistani about the Fatherland

    By Syed Sharfuddin It is always good to touch base with the Fatherland and breathe the air of the place where one was born and grew up playing all sorts of desi and not fit for Olympics games in the less crowded playgrounds and streets in the days gone by. I have been coming to […]

  • No Confidence Motion and Pakistan Constitution

    Syed Sharfuddin* The concept of no confidence vote in a parliamentary democracy is based on the premise that political power rests with the people and they have the right to choose or reject a government formed in their name. This right is exercised through people’s elected representatives in parliament. While the tenure of an elected […]

  • Russia-Ukraine Conflict: A Neutral Analysis

    Syed Sharfuddin* Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022 did not come as a surprise to anyone except Ukrainians who did not take the warnings of the US and other NATO members seriously. What was a surprise for Russia was the resistance put up by the Ukrainian leadership and regular armed forces who made […]

  • A New Perspective on the System of Governance in Pakistan

    [While the debate for a presidential system of government has revived in Pakistan in 2022, the author proposes a new governance structure for the country, including the military’s representation in Parliament.] Syed Sharfuddin A discussion on replacing the current parliamentary form of government with a presidential form is doing rounds in the recent conversation of […]

  • Unity of Church and State: The Islamic Political Model

    Syed Sharfuddin As the philosophical and political discourse of the past century has been dominated by western ideas about state politics and popular culture, no one in the Islamic world is unfamiliar with the theory that the unity of a nation-state, which is itself a legacy of the west’s two world wars, can only be […]

  • TLP Protest and the Power of State: A Matter Revisited

    Syed Sharfuddin The past few days in the politics of Pakistan have been reminiscent of the sunset days of the PML-N era when a small but significant interest group, best classified as a non-state actor, played on the most sensitive Muslim religious issue in the country and used it to hold the government of the […]

  • Rewriting a new Afghan Constitution: A Briefing Paper

    Syed Sharfuddin The G7 countries met virtually on 24 August under the chairmanship of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and demanded that Taliban must extend the deadline for foreign troops to leave Afghanistan beyond August to complete evacuation of all US and NATO troops, as well as stranded foreign nationals in Kabul and those Afghans […]

  • Afghanistan: Collapse of a Government or a Grand Strategy

    Syed Sharfuddin Executive Summary This essays argues that the major reason for the fall of Afghanistan was Taliban fighters’ surprisingly quick move into Afghan provinces and the capital Kabul in August 2021 in a matter of weeks rather than months. It cannot be doubted that the Taliban had prepared for this move in advance, making […]

  • Pakistan’s Limited Opportunities in Afghanistan

    Syed Sharfuddin* A lot has been written about the strategic milestones in the history of Pakistan concerning the events of 1948, 1962, 1965, 1971, 1988, 1999 and 2019 involving the disputed status of Indian occupied Kashmir and relations with the US, China, India and Afghanistan. Some say that there were many lost opportunities in these […]

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