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It’s all about energy, stupid!

By Amir Mateen Islamabad: As all our attention is focused on Asad Umer’s economic wizardry which will lead us to the proverbial Camelot that he and Prime Minister Imran Khan have promised us all along, something is amiss here. Of course, the economic challenges are indeed daunting: turning around public sector enterprises like the Steel…

A bad hair day for Imran

Islamabad—We knew it was going to be dirty. But we could never imagine that it would so dirty. Old timers in the Press Gallery agreed that this was arguably the dirtiest ever National Assembly bedlam. And believe it, these foggys have seen it all.  We saw Ghulam Ishaq Khan sweating to near-death when faced with “Go-Baba-Go”…

Not so rosy for IK as N League gears into action

Islamabad-N League finally exploded into long-awaited action on Tuesday. It was a no-holds-barred sloganeering that started minutes after PTI won the Speakership with 175 votes, which was almost an expected number. The anomaly of eight rejected votes got lost into the mayhem caused by N Leaguers. Newly elected Speaker Asad Qaiser got the first taste…

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Malik Riaz Series

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    Malik Riaz ‘nabbed’ ? Dream Island crashes-X

    Politically Incorrect The good news is that the NAB finally woke up to stop Port Qasim Authority (PQA) from giving further concessions to Malik Riaz of Bahria Town to build, if at all he plans to do that, the alleged Island City, 3.5 km off the Karachi coast. Of course, Malik will continue to sponsor…

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    Kramer versus Malik Riaz-not again-IX

    Politically Incorrect Malik Riaz has pulled another rabbit out of his Bahria hat. As the Abu Dhabi Group backs out of the $45 billion deal that never existed in the first place — enter Thomas Kramer. Again, the same dazzling picture of the world class retreat, encompassing the world’s tallest building 3.5 km off the…

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    Malik Riaz-missing the elephant-VIII

    Politically Incorrect Malik Riaz runs a virtual state within a state. And this has been so for quite a while–from General Musharaf’s time in government, actually. Here is a different perspective on the political happenings. Both Musharraf and Malik needed each other. Musharraf had to keep the military brass happy about his illegitimate rule. Malik…

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    Malik Riaz-the myth of benevolence -VII

    Politically Incorrect Malik Riaz likes to create myths about his own self. One such myth is about his benevolence; that he is a great philanthropist. And the focus is largely on his feeding the poor and the needy. An aura of avatar, the modern-day Daata, is built around his personality. A touch of divinity is…

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    Nightmares of Malik Riaz-VI

    Politically Incorrect Malik Riaz may have hundreds of cases against him but has never been jailed even once. Nor his son, Ali Riaz who is Bahria Town’s Chief executive. Both father and son have been nominated in numerous cases of murder, fraud and forgery but the so-called long arm of the law has been drastically…

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    Malik saga – thriller all the way-V

    The saga of Malik Riaz’s success is not just about a poor man making it big in a rich man’s world. It is more about the manner in which he did that. This tells about the country where bribery and kickbacks and the use of brutal state apparatus against helpless people can make you a…

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    The real power behind Malik Riaz -IV

    Politically Incorrect We might blame the politicians for buckling under the might of Malik Riaz but the real power behind the man is the military brass. No question about that. He learnt the ropes of the contracting trade early on when he worked as a clerk at Maintenance and Engineering Services (MES), a civilian branch…

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    Part III.Malik Riaz-the real power broker

    Malik Riaz may just be a new phenomenon in Pakistan. No private individual may ever have exercised as much leverage over the state as he does. Is it because the state institutions have become so weak that they can be manipulated easily or is he a very smart man. Either way, this Realtor-in-Chief has got…

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    Will the real Malik Riaz please stand up?-II

    Malik Riaz of Bahria Town may be the best prism through which one can understand today’s Pakistan. He personifies the potential that this ‘land of opportunities’ offers, provided you know how to go about it. Palm-greasing, he says, is an essential skill here and that he knows how to attach ‘wheels’ to his work files…

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    $45bn fiasco exposes Malik Riaz-I

    Malik Riaz may just be a new phenomenon in Pakistan. No private individual may ever have exercised as much leverage over the state as he does. Is it because the state institutions have become so weak that they can be manipulated easily or is he a very smart man. Either way, this Realtor-in-Chief has got…

Party Profiles

  • When the cat is away, PML-N returns to old ways

    ISLAMABAD: It was back to old ways after Parliamentarians had approved changes in the Constitution besides making tall claims to wipe off religious terrorism from the country. Thursday was almost an anti-climax. The moment debate on the Peshawar carnage started, ministers were seen almost making a beeline to leave the premises. A few female members…

  • Parliament gives ‘Yes vote’ in bitter-sweet mood

    ISLAMABAD: Once again, Pakistan embarked on the experiment of invoking military courts to try civilians as the Upper and Lower Houses of Parliament gave their consent to the changes in laws and the Constitution. Thankfully, there was no giggling this time around because of the tragic results of such courts in the past. The somber…

  • ‘Giuliani moment’ for Nawaz or a pit of snakes?

    Islamabad: It made sense for the PML-N government to postpone voting on the 21st constitutional amendment, even if it was necessitated by circumstance. We could see chink in the so-called national consensus. Obviously, the government could easily muster the required 228 votes for the constitutional amendment in the National Assembly as long as it was…

  • Special Report PML (Q, K, W, L, J, Z, F, M, P…)

    Mohammad Ali Jinnah must be turning in his grave at the A to Z of Muslim League factions that are using his name and integrity for their political perpetuation — and what not. Successive dictatorships have raped the Quaid’s party so repeatedly that it is difficult to keep track of all the illegitimate offspring. Dictator…

  • Special Report on PPP – by Amir Mateen (Special Report PPP—(Part V) Confused workers have nowhere to go, lost without identity)

    ISLAMABAD: The PPP workers have never felt as dispirited and lost as they do today. The reasons are emotional, political and material. But the foremost is the issue of identity. The party workers are confused as to what do they stand for; whether they should go along with the public support for the judiciary or…

  • Special Report on PPP – by Amir Mateen (Special Report-PPP IV Who’s who in the invisible govt of Zardari)

    ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari looks taller by readily giving away his powers through the 18th Amendment. But this may have been one of the smartest moves that he ever made. Beneath this faÁade of a seemingly powerless Presidency lurks the most potent political and administrative machinery this country has ever seen. He has got…

  • Special Report on PPP – by Amir Mateen (Special Report: PPP — Part-3 Baji Faryal now running PPP, emulating Benazir)

    ISLAMABAD: The PPP, which survived the worst of three dictatorships, is ironically crumbling down in a democracy. Its leaders and workers withstood a lot over four decades: the hanging of its founder Zulfikar Ali Bhutto; long imprisonments of its top leadership and workers; physical torture; the killing of Shahnawaz and Murtaza Bhutto under dubious circumstances…

  • Special Report on PPP – by Amir Mateen (Special Report: PPP (Part-II) ‘Aik Zardari, sub par bhari’)

    ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari may have overly rushed in turning the Bhuttos’ PPP into a Zardari fiefdom. Nearly all of Benazir’s close associates and the party’s old guard have been replaced. The network of Zardari family and friends is a political disaster, worse than what the cronies and relatives of the Chaudhries of Gujrat…

  • Special Report on PPP – by Amir Mateen (Part-1 The cruel joke is on Benazir)

    ISLAMABAD: Benazir Bhutto would not recognise her party if she were to see it today. It is no longer the Pakistan People’s Party that she inherited from her father and neither is it the one she may have wanted to bequeath to her children, or her party faithful. And anyone knowing Benazir’s passion would agree…

  • The changing politics of Nawaz Sharif (Special Report PML-N-IV)

    ISLAMABAD: The biggest PML-N plank is that it promises a better government in Islamabad than being run by the PPP. Nawaz Sharif believes that the PPP under Asif Zardari is going downhill and he hopes that this fruit of power will fall in his lap in due time. And with a bang of ‘heavy mandate.’…

Published at The News

  • Free-for-all as PML-N fails to put its act together

    ISLAMABAD: The PML-N government definitely needs to put its act together. It’s always embarrassing when a sitting government can’t maintain quorum, which means gathering a mere one-fourth members of the National Assembly. It was even more embarrassing for the PML-N government when the session got adjourned for the lack of quorum. The reason is that…

  • When the cat is away, PML-N returns to old ways

    ISLAMABAD: It was back to old ways after Parliamentarians had approved changes in the Constitution besides making tall claims to wipe off religious terrorism from the country. Thursday was almost an anti-climax. The moment debate on the Peshawar carnage started, ministers were seen almost making a beeline to leave the premises. A few female members…

  • Parliament gives ‘Yes vote’ in bitter-sweet mood

    ISLAMABAD: Once again, Pakistan embarked on the experiment of invoking military courts to try civilians as the Upper and Lower Houses of Parliament gave their consent to the changes in laws and the Constitution. Thankfully, there was no giggling this time around because of the tragic results of such courts in the past. The somber…

  • ‘Giuliani moment’ for Nawaz or a pit of snakes?

    Islamabad: It made sense for the PML-N government to postpone voting on the 21st constitutional amendment, even if it was necessitated by circumstance. We could see chink in the so-called national consensus. Obviously, the government could easily muster the required 228 votes for the constitutional amendment in the National Assembly as long as it was…

  • Mountains crossed as everybody giggles

    ISLAMABAD: It was as quick as it could be. They came, tabled the Bill, and adjourned the National Assembly till Monday. Political parties showed a rare unanimity in tabling the 21st Amendment Bill that, in normal circumstances, should have been most controversial. Yet there was not a hiss, a protest or a cry. Not even…

  • Nawaz in power seat as everything revolves around him; Oh really?

    ISLAMABAD: With the fulcrum of political activity moving to the Prime Minister House, the parliamentary debate over the Peshawar aftermath seemed meaningless. Yet this did not deter backbenchers like Omer Ayub to contribute their two pence. As the grandson of the first dictator, whose family supported successive regimes also, Omer carried the torch to defend…

  • Will we see our future being discussed behind closed doors?

    ISLAMABAD: What a farce! PPP’s Khursheed Shah chose to speak on oil prices just when we expected his ilk to enlighten us on how they want to sort out Taliban mess in the aftermath of the Peshawer bloodbath. True, the PML (N) government has not decreased the local petroleum prices in accordance with the 40…

  • Politicians miss the policy bus?

    ISLAMABAD: If the PML-N had a choice it would not have the National Assembly at all. Or so seems the case.   Life would have been so much easier with no Parliament to ask the government why it failed to give its terrorism policy in eight long months – even after over 1000 people got…

  • Time to get over East Pakistan syndrome

    ISLAMABAD: It definitely touched a few raw nerves when Jamaat-i-Islami attempted to get a resolution passed in the National Assembly, condemning the execution of Jamaat leader Abdul Quader Mollah in Dhaka on the charges of war crimes.   This was one issue that had the potential to scratch old wounds. Jamaat’s Sahibzada Tariqullah made a…

  • PTI in disarray as Imran enjoys his seclusion

    ISLAMABAD: The ‘new Pakistan’ that Imran Khan promised us in the last election is yet to make its mark – as far as the National Assembly is concerned.   Except for Asad Umer, Arif Alvi and Shafqat Mahmood, who may be new in the National Assembly but is an old hand in politics, the new…