Ali Malik's blog

When one authority replaces another, it dismantles the old order and establishes a new one. This is something which the jargon intellectuals on our media are overseeing day-in day-out while reviewing the recent developments in our country and the region. When British Order collapsed, it was replaced by no definitive order but a conflict of two orders, Soviet and American. Americans being closer to British values, decided to pursue with British order to battle the immediate threat of communism. The threat was a threat of survival and rather than dismantling the old order and replacing it with a new one, Americans focused on triumph in conflict and used their proximity to British values to their advantage. After the collapse of Soviet Union, Americans started implementing the American order in the world (much like the British Imperial Order, or Ottoman Order, or Arab Order, or Order of Gladiators). There is nothing unusual about it and nothing suspicious. This world is full of way too ma...

Under Asif Ali Zardari, the set up at the center and in three provinces of Pakistan looks stable despite crisis emerging one after the other. The governance so far has been far from perfect. Administrative follies emerging from lack of experience of government affairs has dented government's credibility some what. Intensity of crisis is also testing Government hard. And just when Government's performance on judicial crisis, Musharraf, political reconciliation, avoiding financial crunch and risk of default, war against militancy, Balochistan, and post-Mumbai attacks conflict with India is praiseworthy, the crisis of electricity, gas and petrol, and rising inflation is more than overshadowing its accomplishment in commoners' perception. It seems the Government's misery in these issues is threefold. On one level, it inherited a burden of problems which in itself is mammoth and would test anyone. On second level, just when some of the brightest minds have been appoin...