The Londoner

By Sikander Hayat  There is a perception that Trump is the logical conclusion of all that has been happening in the world and in the United States of America for last 10 years.  It has been argued by many that democracy acts as a vent and allows societies to show their frustrations without resorting to bloody civil conflicts . It is also true that it allows demagogues to use people’s frustrations to their advantage and instil hate into the minds of populace. It is always easy to blame a particular outcome on particular outsiders/others. It is very well documented that Trump used the pain , anger and helplessness of ordinary citizens to make a case against globalisation , free trade and environmental protection agencies. Both Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump pointed at the same symptoms for the malaise in society but both of them have proposed different remedies for these ills. Some of the main differences are as follows: 1.    ...

A day from today, more than seven million voters in Karachi will choose to exercise their right of electing a local representative who will manage their issues of basic governance. But it is not simple as that. This is Karachi; dynamic and volatile, where even matters of basic governance come with a great amount of baggage, be it from the way local governments have been formed and managed in the past or from political quarters that directly impact the performance of candidates elected on local government posts. The News sat down with key leaders of the four major political stakeholders — Waseem Akhtar of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, Hafiz Naeem-ur-Rehman of the Jamaat-e-Islami, Ali Zaidi of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and Najmi Alam of the Pakistan People’s Party — and discussed with them their expectations and fears for beyond whatever happens on December 5. Below are the leaders’ exclusive responses to a common set of questions which mostly pertain to matters of basic govern...

Turkish voters are going to the polls in parliamentary elections that could end more than a decade of single-party rule by the Justice and Development party (AKP). Voting stations around the country opened on Sunday morning in the snap elections, which were called by the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, after negotiations to form a an inconclusive vote  in June fell apart. coalition with the opposition following  Read more Now the divisive fi . “We will all have to show respect to the national will,” said Erdoğan on Sunday after voting in Istanbul . “Turkey has made great strides in democracy and this stride will be strengthened with today’s election.” A starkly different message came from Selahattin Demirtas , the leader of the  pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) , which garnered 13% of the vote in June’s election and robbed the AKP of its majority for the first time since 2002. “Unfortunately, it was a difficult and tr...