The parties are now on the campaign trail though there is no Super Tuesday scenario; more like a free-for-all. Adding to the chaos, election-watchers never know who is going to be harassed, killed, or arrested next. A sign-of-the times conference took place yesterday in the tribal North West Frontier Province where the safety of voters’
Some of Musharraf’s domestic problems arise from his attitude to the judiciary. There’s widespread anger over his suspension of Pakistan’s top judge, the first time such an event has happened in the 50–year history of the Supreme Court. When the President of the Supreme Court Bar Association, Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan, was released from detention a couple
Party chiefs launched their manifestos at Imperial College in London this week. No slick Anglo-American electioneering with carefully choreographed speeches and prepared questions here, this was raw Pakistani politics where missiles fire unguided. The chiefs each had 15 minutes to speak and had been given specific questions to address, which they mostly ignored. They ran
The harsh words exchanged during the recent American primaries have exemplified high decorum compared to the no-holds barred Pakistani election brawl. Accusations and counter-accusations, demonstrations and violence feature in this campaign, postponed from January 8th to February 18th after the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto. Election geeks compare the number of times “murder,” “terrorism”
In the week of the World Economic Forum Rani Singh talks to Angel Gurría, head of the OECD, who has sharp words on capitalist ‘schizophrenia’ and a coded warning for Gordon ‘Because of the miners’ strike we were all asked to have only one light bulb on. My wife and I had to take baths
The ancient tradition of arts patronage is being revived in Marbella, the Andalusian playground of the rich and famous. Here in the shadow of the Sierra Blanca mountains, next to the luxurious Marbella Club, built by Prince Alfonso von Hohenlohe in the 1950s, The New World Trust, organisers of the Marbella Film Festival and the