Kamran Shafi, Bank Profits, But the SC would not entertain Asghar Khan's petition

SC orders govt to evolve strategy to curb marine pollution: The SC bench observed, “These human rights petitions had been pending since 1992 and 1994 but no substantial progress has been achieved despite the directives of the court.” But the SC would not entertain Asghar Khan's petition

SC summons city administrator

Five banks pocket 94pc of entire 2009 profits: KARACHI: The big five banks NBP, MCB Bank, HBL, UBL and ABL — bagged over 94 per cent of the total profit of the entire banking industry in 2009.Most of the results (over 90 per cent) of the listed banks for the year 2009 had been announced which showed that the five banks successfully enlarged their profits and got absolute domination in the banking industry.

Kamran Shafi: This is a most serious matter: the Pakistani ambassador sitting in on a private business meeting; specially an ambassador who was a retired and much bedecked navy chief. Might one call upon My Lords the justices of the Supreme Court of Pakistan who have oft spoken of the need to wipe out corruption in high places, to take suo motu action on this too and summon Adm Karimullah to explain himself? (Leave it to Kamran to pick one of the few uncorrupt officers)

Book review: Easily forgettable tales —by Mehr Tarar

In Other Rooms, Other Wonders By Daniyal Mueenuddin
WW Norton & Company; Pp 256

“Not that the story need be long,
But it will take a long while to make it short” — Henry David Thoreau.

In Other Rooms, Other Wonders, the author, maintaining constant simplicity of language and the straightforwardness of his words, manages to keep the writing taut and to the point. There is an unusual fluency in his writing, making him stand out from most of his Pakistani and Indian contemporaries

Muslim women challenge mosque gender separation in Washington DC

Ikram Sehgal: The speculation in the media regarding extension of service to Armed Forces officers is disturbing. Vested interest seems to have made it his (or her) business to create controversy, and that is not surprising, this is as per a well-orchestrated mandate to disparage the Pakistan Armed Forces. Whereas appointment of Chairman JCSC and the Service chiefs are necessarily (and should be) in the public domain, promotions, appointments, extensions, etc within the Services should not be public property. Except for extension, I agree with Ikram. Extensions of the brass should remain with the civilian overlords.

Mosharraf Zaidi: The quintessential Pakistani finance ministers are the two that have enjoyed the longest tenures. Ghulam Ishaq Khan...July 1977 to March 1985, and Shaukat Aziz ...November 1999 to November 2007...The most important common strain across these two was that neither would, even in their most courageous and brazen moments, have considered taxing the hands that fed them. The left hand being that of the feudal landowners that help sustain a skewed narrative of economics in Pakistan, and the right hand being that of the Pakistani military, whose appetite for fiscal expansion has never been institutionally challenged, or checked, in Pakistani history. ...The only real institutional success these finance ministers had was that they kept Pakistan from imposing the two most important kinds of taxes that this country now desperately needs to impose: a major tax on the wealth of large landowners, and a major "tax" on the unsustainable growth of the defence budget.