A blog about Governance and Democracy in Pakistan
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The Commonwealth London Summit 2018
By Syed Sharfuddin A two-day Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, known in the Commonwealth family as CHOGM, concluded on Friday 20 April in Windsor, the home of Windsor Castle in England, after a busy week of activities ranging from celebrating Commonwealth linkages between diverse groups of people and organisations to Foreign Ministers’ and Heads of […]
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The Search for Baba Rehmata
By Syed Sharfuddin Ever since the Hon Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Sahib Nasir mentioned the unidentified Baba in his 16 December 2017 address at a seminar in Lahore, the Baba has become a persona incarnate and the talk of the town in Pakistan’s ongoing political discourse. In his address, the Chief Justice said: “The […]
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What Umar Cheema Doesn’t Know and What Mufti Saeed is Not Telling
By: Syed Sharfuddin At the start of 2018 the biggest news in Pakistan and perhaps the world was Pakistan Taehrik Insaaf Party’s (PTI) maverick leader Imran’s Khan had married again, this time with a homemaker divorced woman named Bushra Bibi aka Peerni. The news of the marriage was kept in close covers until it was […]
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President Trump’s August 2017 speech on Afghanistan is a serious statement of US Administration’s new Afghanistan Policy. Well Done Sir!
President Trump’s address on Afghanistan delivered last night in front of the US service personnel in Fort Meyer, Virginia curiously coincided with the long full solar eclipse in the United States for over 99 years. Whether it is a good omen for the US and a bad omen for the Taliban we will know in […]
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Civil-Military Relations: Off Again On Again in Pakistan’s Political Governance
Syed Sharfuddin The controversial disqualification of an elected Prime Minister by a five-member panel of Pakistan Supreme Court on 28 July 2017 on charges of corruption and perjury has revived the debate in Pakistan’s political circles and social media on the status-quo of civil-military relations and its implications for the future of democracy in Pakistan. […]
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Disqualification of Prime Minister Sharif. A Case of Judicial Chutzpah
By: Syed Sharfuddin On 28 July 2017 a five-member bench of the Supreme Court of Pakistan announced its final verdict in the widely publicised hearing of the case on corruption-in-high-office involving the Prime Minister of Pakistan Mian Mohammad Nawaz Sharif and his immediate family members (Panama Case). Earlier, one of the judges on the Panama […]
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Yemen Crisis: Who is Involved
Many observers are seeing the ongoing Yemen civil war as a shrewd attempt by Iran to come close to Saudi Arabia’s borders through proxy. They also see the largely GCC-supported military ‘Operation Decisive Storm’ led by Saudi Arabia as an attempt to maintain the power status quo in the region and avoid an AQ & […]
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Notes for Presentation by Professor the Hon Gareth Evans AC QC, Former Foreign Minister of Australia to King Prajadhipok Institute, Bangkok, 3 February 2015. Courtesy Global Leadership Forum Website
http://www.g-l-f.org/index.cfm?id=62090&modex=blogid&modexval=19826&blogid=19826#.VO2E_9K8gJI Professor the Hon Gareth Evans Personal background as academic constitutional lawyer (5 years); Member of Parliament 21 years (18 upper house, 3 lower); Cabinet Minister 13 years (4 major portfolios, domestic and external); President of International Crisis Group 9 years (addressing, inter alia, conflict prevention/peacebuilding/transition/ stabilization situations). But acknowledge experience does not always […]
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Governance and the Role of Citizen – Small State Model
Five Point Test Section 1 – Awareness about Elected Government 1.1 Do you follow parliamentary meetings 1.2 Do you follow cabinet meetings 1.3 Do you get involved in public consultations 1.4 Do you have awareness of any recent initiatives or policies of government for economic and social development 1.5 Do you take part in non-governmental […]
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Why the Dharna has not Gone Away: A Political Analysis
Contrary to Government’s assessment that the PTI and PAT public protest in Islamabad which started in August 2014 would have limited shelf-life and will not last beyond a few weeks, the Islamabad dharna – literal meaning in Urdu – stay put – has continued to attract the people and become a family affair beyond the […]
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