Posts Tagged ‘Reforms’

No state can exist without taxation. Pakistan is running on empty pockets and is under extreme pressures, internal and external. The state does not have the economic resources to provide even essential services to the masses, leading to disaffection, frustration, hopelessness, breakdown of social structure, crime, violence, and terrorism. [...]

While the pivotal role of civil service for aptly maintaining statecraft, anywhere in the world, is self-evident, the historical renovation of the institution of bureaucracy proves it the force-multiplier which is quintessentially important for policy formation besides implementing developmental agenda or bringing socio-economic changes. Modern [...]

Older readers will recognise this mantra from the past: “South Korea stole our first Five-Year Plan.” According to this urban legend, when a Korean was accused of this petty larceny by a Pakistani, he retorted: “Yes, but we implemented it.” The other pat on the back we give ourselves is about how PIA helped establish Air Malta and [...]

FATA needs change The more important thing at this point is not whether Pakistan`s tribal region is linked with the failed terrorist plot in New York, but whether their should be speedy reforms in FATA to prevent its causing the next 9/11. Some people in Pakistan might think that if the economic and security situation improved and peace [...]

The LUBP is pleased to present for the benefit of our readers a PDF of Tarek Fatah's book Chasing a Mirage: The Tragic lllusion of an Islamic State (2008). The book is dedicated to Shaheed Benazir Bhutto and Daniel Pearl and is a passionate effort against the Islamists who have destroyed our country. Here is the link to the book: Tarek Fatah [...]

Monday April 19, 2010 - President Zardari made history by signing the landmark constitutional reforms amendment bill into law. Zardari - after taking office 18 months ago - pledged to reform the constitution. He promised that all the anomalies that were created by the dictators to protect their powers will be removed from the constitution. After [...]

Being the president won’t be fun any more; Minimum age for judges 45; president can’t impose emergency with impunity; PM to appoint services chiefs; judges validating coup to be tried for high treason ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari’s sweeping powers to impose emergency in the country will be clipped in the upcoming constitutional [...]

New name for NWFP threatens to hit constitutional reforms The blame game between the two parties started a day after the 26-member all-party parliamentary committee on constitutional reforms completed the first reading of the draft of the proposed 18th constitution amendment bill. ISLAMABAD: The continuing tussle between Awami National [...]

Here is a well written piece about Madrassah reforms by Saiful Islam Khalid. I found this piece in a weekly newspaper from Islamabad. It was in paper print, which I have composed and edited to post it for LUBP viewers: (more...)

Roots Branches Young children were kidnapped by the Taliban and then made to serve as suicide bombers. These young men, and in the latter part of the battle young women, became cannon fodder for the Taliban’s heinous designs. They did not have the freedom to choose their path At least 13 people dead in the Lahore blast. On the day that [...]

The International Crisis Group’s Report on Civil Service Reform has sparked conversations around the need and potential avenues for restructuring Pakistan’s civil service. This, however, is not the first time that a report on the subject has been made public. Ever since the country’s creation, more than thirty commissions/committees have [...]

When I was elected president more than a year ago, Pakistan was in grave condition, strained by terrorism and a ravaged economy. Countering the effects of a decade of dictatorship requires bold actions, some of which are unpopular. I am working with Parliament to (more...)

Sunday, December 13, 2009 Has the government of Pakistan made a plan as to how it will spend $1.5 billion that will be coming our way courtesy the Treasury Building, 1500 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC? Has any of the provincial government undertaken a need-assessment or a need-priority exercise? If we are still planning to plant [...]

KARACHI: The first independent women police station with a 24-hour helpline ‘1213’ established at the Saddar police station was inaugurated by National Assembly Speaker Dr Fehmida Mirza on Thursday. Sindh Home Minister Dr Zulfiqar Mirza, Information Minister Shazia Marri, IGP Sultan Salahuddin Babar Khattak, Karachi CCPO Waseem Ahmed, DIG [...]

‘Political wing of ISI not yet terminated’* Senior security official says department made ‘inactive’, but staff not moved* Says ISI going through transformationDaily Times MonitorISLAMABAD: A senior security official has contradicted Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi’s statement that the political wing of Inter-Services Intelligence [...]

What to do with FCR?Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani had declared last April that he would like to abolish the Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR) in the Tribal Areas because it was “a barbaric colonial-era law that had ruled the tribal areas through the threat of collective punishment”. But Maulana Fazlur Rehman, whose party (JUIF) had joined [...]

The US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, Mr Richard Boucher, said Tuesday that Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI) needed to be reformed. He did not point to any specific flaw in the conduct of the ISI but the general impression is that his remark sprang from a deep US suspicion that the ISI [...]