Pakistan’s Political Parties: Surviving Between Dictatorship and Democracy is a good addition to Pakistan’s corpus of literature on political science, even if it does not specifically incorporate a perspective on the country’s political economy.
The book’s 14 chapters are separated into three broad areas: form, function and survival. ‘Form’ discusses the party system, with chapters on the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), Muttaheda Qaumi Movement (MQM) and leftist and religious parties. ‘Function’ analyses how the party system works with regards to political contact at the ground level, candidate-party linkages, women’s exclusion, governance and opposition. And ‘survival’ refers to the political parties’ resilience in the face of challenges being mounted from the military, judiciary and foreign policy perspective.
‘Safaai nisf imaan hai’: UK envoy Turner holds up mirror to Pakistanis
British HC collects trash from Margalla Hills hiking trails, strewn with litter such as empty cans and water bottles
PHOTO: COURTESY/@CTurnerFCDO
British High Commissioner to Pakistan Dr Christian Turner, who has been actively working to promote positive image of Pakistan, on Friday posted images of trash he collected on his way back from Islamabad s Margalla Hills after a morning walk, putting at shame people responsible for littering the scenic hiking trails.
Margalla Hills are a major attraction for tourists as well as the residents of the capital city who come in droves to trek through its trails.
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The row between Pakistan’s government and opposition parties has taken a new course: debating whether Pakistani forces can fight its enemies for 24 hours or more.
Earlier this week, the head of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUIF), Maulana Fazlur Rehman, in a statement said Pakistan’s forces “are not capable of fighting for 24 hours.”
Rehman further said that Pakistan was pushing for reconciliation with India because it couldn’t fight the country due to the weak economy. He also criticized the chief of the army staff, General Qamar Javed Bajwa, for reportedly holding a secret meeting with several journalists.
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Afghan security forces broke up an alleged Chinese espionage ring in December that was operating in Kabul and trying to infiltrate terrorist networks in the country.
The Afghan government said little about the issue besides acknowledging the arrests. Beijing publicly denied knowledge of the group’s activities.
But Afghan officials later told journalists the spy cell had been operating for up to seven years in the country and had been seeking the help of the Haqqani network a Pakistan-backed Islamist group linked to the Taliban to hunt down Uyghur groups operating in Afghanistan.
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