civil–military relations

Pakistan following “Bangladesh model”

A Dawn report on PTI president Javed Hashmi’s claim that a ‘Bangladesh model’ of technocratic rule was scripted, with the poster doubting the idea.

Brown Pundits Archive1 September 20140 comments
“They have stormed the PTV office”

As protesters storm the state broadcaster in Islamabad, the author predicts Nawaz Sharif may fall for the third time, and warns the country is moving towards a permanent chaos in…

Brown Pundits Archive1 September 20140 comments
“Its a jungle out there”

A Dawn reporter’s account of tear gas at D-Chowk, with the poster’s gloss that civilians confronting the army always lose, and a bleak sketch of the economic and political fallout…

Brown Pundits Archive31 August 20140 comments
Egypt shows the way

Responding to an American assessment of Pakistan’s protests, the poster argues the army is preferred over mob rule, as in Egypt and Thailand, and that Nawaz Sharif is finished partly…

Brown Pundits Archive29 August 20140 comments
Soft coup-

A one-paragraph comment that the Pakistan Army has emerged as the winner of the political crisis, with democracy defanged but its legitimacy preserved.

Brown Pundits Archive29 August 20140 comments
The honorable Maulana is a traitor

Reports that the JUI-F’s Maulana Fazlur Rehman alleges an ‘ISI within the ISI’ behind kidnappings and killings, with the poster wondering whether Nawaz Sharif prompted the remark and asking readers…

Brown Pundits Archive20 May 20140 comments
“I accept being called a traitor”

Wishing a wounded Geo TV journalist a full recovery, the poster reproduces his statement rejecting the ‘traitor’ label and the ‘good and bad terrorists’ distinction. The poster adds that the…

Brown Pundits Archive9 May 20140 comments
Imran Khan boarding the wrong train…as usual

The author argues that Imran Khan is backing the wrong side in joining the campaign against Geo, since the army’s grip on politics has been weakening for years and Geo’s…

Brown Pundits Archive29 April 20140 comments
“We love Pakistan army and ISI”

A comment on Geo TV’s unprecedented public defiance of the ISI after the attack on Hamid Mir; the poster expects little to change except Geo’s demise, but thinks breaking the…

Brown Pundits Archive28 April 20141 comment
Indian Navy hit by stiff waves

A comment, with a news extract, on turmoil in the Indian Navy after two submarine accidents and the resignation of a vice admiral who was passed over for the top…

Brown Pundits Archive21 April 20140 comments