Category: At What Cost

[To understand the context of this post, please read At What Cost! Why Compute Economic Costs of Faulty Political Decisions] The analysis of the recent NewYork Times article about Afghanistan indicates that think tanks in USA have worked out all the options for Afghanistan. All these options perpetuate destabilization for the long term which is the…

[To understand the context of this post, please read At What Cost! Why Compute Economic Costs of Faulty Political Decisions] I often come across people who consider that Gen Musharraf’s U-Turn after 9-11 was the only alternative that the dictator had in the face of the threat from State Department official to bomb Pakistan back to…

Is Doctrine of Necessity dead and buried as proclaimed by Supreme Court in its decision of March 2012? Wherein it stated that “deciding cases on the basis of likely consequences will mean reverting to the malignant ‘doctrine of necessity’ that has been buried by the people with their valiant struggle” [1]. Or, is doctrine of…

[To understand the context of this post, please read At What Cost! Why Compute Economic Costs of Faulty Political Decisions] There is a widespread “myth” that what Pakistan needs is a “strong leader” (a savior on horseback) who will come and conquer all our issues and problems in no time. There is a mythical belief that…

We need to compare the Doctrine of Necessity version 2.0 of SC Justice Khosa (2017) which states “To do a great right, do a little wrong” with the Doctrine of Necessity version 1.0 of  SC CJ Munir (1954) which states “Necessity makes lawful that which is unlawful”. As per SC decision of March 2012 “deciding…

[To understand the context of this post, please read At What Cost! Why Compute Economic Costs of Faulty Political Decisions] It is worrying to see the sentiments of educated people and the functional illiterates (those who know how to read but are not readers) on the social media clamoring for the head of the PM and…

Sharifuddin Pirzada is responsible for assisting the violation of constitution and abuse of law by military dictators through the design of legal machinations and tools to subdue the judiciary and replace it with compliant judges. He supervised the drafting of the “mairay humwatano….” speeches for the coup plotters and dictators from Gen Ayub Khan, to…

At What Cost? Costs of perceived strictness of military dictatorships vs the reality of constitutional governments in Pakistan. The comparison in this post indicates that the perception of better accountability in clean dictatorship is not valid because in the long term the constitutional governments of corrupt politicians deliver a far better accountability than the dictatorships which…

To understand the context of this post, please read At What Cost! Why Compute Economic Costs of Faulty Political Decisions At What Cost? Costs of perceived strictness of military dictatorships vs the reality of civilian governments in Pakistan. This post studies the case of Karachi disturbances and rise of MQM from 1980 and the relationships of…

To understand the context of this post, please read At What Cost! Why Compute Economic Costs of Faulty Political Decisions At What Cost? Costs of Branding a Politician as a Traitor There is a traitor/foreign agent production factory in Pakistan that seems to be in full swing. It has targets that have been trained on most…

[To understand the context of this post, please read At What Cost! Why Compute Economic Costs of Faulty Political Decisions] At What Cost? Costs of Self Proclaimed Field Marshals in Third World Countries In Pakistan the award of Field Marshal rank has been a product of sycophancy and political expediency for personal gain and short term…

[To understand the context of this post, please read At What Cost! Why Compute Economic Costs of Faulty Political Decisions] Doctrine of Necessity Decision by Justice Munir had been disastrous for Pakistan. Not only did this decision annulled the historic judgement of Sindh High Court that has disallowed the dissolution of assemblies by Gen Iskandar Mirza…

[To understand the context of this post, please read At What Cost! Why Compute Economic Costs of Faulty Political Decisions] Historic Failures of Strategic Doctrines by Dictator Generals in Pakistan What happens when generals (military men) arrogate to themselves “strategy making” when at best they have been trained for obtaining tactical advantage?  Are Generals Qualified…

[To understand the context of this post, please read At What Cost! Why Compute Economic Costs of Faulty Political Decisions] This post analyzes the continuing accumulation of long term costs associated with General Musharraf’s dicatatorship 1999-2008 in the areas of ideological costs, economic costs, governance costs, foreign policy debacles and political engineering costs. [Bullets are being…

[To understand the context of this post, please read At What Cost! Why Compute Economic Costs of Faulty Political Decisions] We typically look at General Ayub and the economic performance during his time, ignoring the long term economic and political impact of the decisions that he took and the processes that he set in motion. This…