“Monday’s appearance in the Supreme Court (SC) of the missing Adiala prisoners,” wrote a columnist, “was a reminder of the human aspect of this story, providing the media with direct access to the sadness and horror of the lives of…
Author Archive for Abbas Zaidi
Zardari is a career
by Abbas Zaidi •
“Pakistan’s nuclear assets are not safe as long as Zardari exists [Zardari ke hotay huay],” said Shah Mehmood Qureshi a couple of weeks ago. This is gutter politics based upon shameless posturing. By making this claim, Qureshi has proved that…
Hajj concludes ‘peacefully’ with bloody batons
by Abbas Zaidi •
Hajj is a great opportunity for freedom of expression and a great opportunity to breathe freedom in the holiest Muslim place in the world. But then freedom is anathema to the House of Saud According to AFP and SPA news…
Criminal cricketers and their accomplices
by Abbas Zaidi •
The three cricketers are proven guilty and are thus criminals. They are shameless too. They never accepted their crime. Amir did confess, but only when it was too late and that too on the advice of his lawyer. Now that…
JI-USIP Report: Pakistan Elite’s Mindless Quest for Lebensraum
by Abbas Zaidi •
Abandon hope all ye who enter here (Dante Alighieri) These past few weeks Pakistan’s print and electronic media has been awash with articles and talk shows vociferously supporting “Pakistan, the United States and the End Game in Afghanistan: Perceptions of…
Did someone say “Dr General-CMLA Ziaul Haq” too?
by Abbas Zaidi •
Ninety-nine percent of Pakistani (electronic and print) media (Urdu as well as English) is right wing, and 100 percent of it has run amok in fury over an honorary doctorate awarded to Interior Minister Rehman Malik by Governor Sindh Ishratul…
Supreme Court’s Karachi verdict
by Abbas Zaidi •
No individual, party, or group (excepting Jamaat-e-Islami) has tried to read deeper into the Supreme Court’s verdict on Karachi’s law and order problem. It seems politically correct to shower praise on the verdict and express the desire to implement the…
For God’s sake!
by Abbas Zaidi •
If possession of liquor, and not its consumption, is a crime, Odho should face justice. The question is: is possessing two bottles of liquor such a big crime that the Chief Justice of Pakistan feels forced to take a suo…
Colonial Crime, Postcolonial Justice
by Abbas Zaidi •
On what basis can a colonial crime be decided in a postcolonial context? The court that indicted Ilmuddin was a British colonial court; it had a colonial jurisprudential logic and legality. Now the entire paradigm has changed. The crown has…