The Pakistani Spectator

A Candid Blog


Author Archive

Moharram and Form of Government

By Umar Tosheeb • Dec 3rd, 2011 • Category: Politics, Worth A Second Look

Islamic world is still trying to figure out what system of governance suits it the best. In this month of Moharram it will be interesting to look at form of governments and the event of Moharram and what led to it. There are many Islamic organizations out there in Islamic world that want to establish [...]



Azad Kashmir Elections

By Umar Tosheeb • Jun 23rd, 2011 • Category: Politics, Worth A Second Look

The upcoming Azad Kashmir elections, if fair and free, would perhaps be the first competitively held with any purposeful democratic meaning attached to them. Ever since the first held elections in 1970–more than not–it has been the case that party in power in Islamabad was also the one in power in Muzafarabad. This time around [...]



Saraiki Sooba

By Umar Tosheeb • Jan 23rd, 2011 • Category: Politics, Worth A Second Look

If realistically we were to look at the issue of division of Punjab, we’ll see that this division is not a straightforward issue and it involves many complications.  When those complications will be overcome, the division of Punjab can be a good thing for Punjab and Pakistan.
It is not clear how popular this movement for [...]



Tunisia, Pakistan, and Silly Revolutions

By Umar Tosheeb • Jan 20th, 2011 • Category: Politics

Those comparing Tunisia and Pakistan should realize that no such comparison exists between the two countries. This comparison has come into limelight after Zine al-Abidine Ben, the Tunisians President, who had ruled for more than twenty years–facing popular uprising–fled the country. This fact alone should discourage the revolutionary schemers in Pakistan, but knowing the so [...]



How to Deal With Mullahs

By Umar Tosheeb • Jan 15th, 2011 • Category: Politics

After the murder of governor of Punjab Salman Taseer the liberal sections of Pakistani society have been extremely worried about their place in the society. This worry is extremely serious and should not be taken lightly. The only consolation that liberals can have for now in Pakistan is that the country is still quite far [...]



Asif Zardari And Governance

By Umar Tosheeb • Dec 12th, 2010 • Category: Politics

It is an agreed and well know fact that Asif Zardari is an accidental President. After the death of his wife, he became President of Pakistan because his wife had sacrificed her life, so he deserved being President. It has almost been three years since this PPP government came into power–given the government’s record on [...]



Wikileaks: Pakistan’s Foreign Policy Woes

By Umar Tosheeb • Dec 4th, 2010 • Category: Features

Wikileak documents highlight the sorry state of Pakistan’s foreign policy; the most sickening thing about revelations from these documents is that all the countries involved are doing their best to protect their interests vis-a-vis Pakistan—and even interests of their allies—except Pakistan doing the same for its own interests. When it comes to interests of Pakistan, [...]



The CNG Mystery

By Umar Tosheeb • Dec 2nd, 2010 • Category: Lead Story

Everyday people get to hear government restricting supply of gas to CNG stations in different parts of the country. It is obvious that government has to do this because of the limited supply of gas. But limited supply of gas is not the only reason; the problem of gas shortage runs far deeper and this [...]



Guantanamo Bay in Historical Context

By Umar Tosheeb • Nov 27th, 2010 • Category: Features

History repeats itself often, and we learn from it, too. There are mainly two types of lessons that we learn from History. First, we know that an injustice took place in the past, and a similar incident is taking place at the moment; the outcome of this knowledge is that we either fail to do [...]



A Pakistani immigrant’s first day of school in USA

By Umar Tosheeb • Nov 13th, 2010 • Category: Politics, Worth A Second Look

At the time of my first day of school in  USA, I had been in USA for about three weeks. If you have not gone through similar situation, you could never imagine how it feels. Being from a small village with population of about 1,000–or even less than that, and having gone to a School [...]