The Americans do not have a monopoly on freedom and protection for women. This is the message from yesterday's historic event in Islamabad where President Zardari signed the Protection Against Harassment of Women at Workplace Bill ensuring equal rights for men and women in accordance with the Constitution. This was an especially bold move by the President, who has taken a firm stand against religious parties, choosing instead to stand with the legacy of the Quaid.

In case you missed Nadeem Paracha's column in Dawn yesterday, take a moment to read it, please. Nadeem makes an excellent point about the recently concluded election in NA-55 and what this really says about what politics really resonates with the people.

by Cyril Almeida

Let’s walk through the process for appointing superior court judges devised by Raza Rabbani’s Parliamentary Committee on Constitutional Reforms (PCCR). A vacancy on the Supreme Court (SC) arises following the retirement of one of its 17 permanent justices.

Somewhere, six men with grave expressions sit down to decide who they will recommend for the job. Seated at the table are the chief justice (CJ) of Pakistan, the two senior-most judges of the SC after the CJ, the attorney general, the federal law minister and a senior advocate of the Pakistan Bar Council (PBC).

Ishtiaq Ahmed, Visiting Research Professor at the Institute of South Asian Studies (ISAS) and the South Asian Studies Programme at the National University of Singapore and Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Stockholm University, makes a great case for why a secular state is a moral state in his column for today's Daily Times.

President Zardari has outlined a future where our workers are not treated as servants but as partners.

Muhammad Ali Siddiqi's column in Dawn this week about Pakistan's 'New Left' must be considered by any pro-democracy individuals. Those of us who support a liberal, secular government for Pakistan in the tradition of the Quaid - and I suggest this is the majority of Pakistan - we need to work together to resist the very organized and orchestrated right wing and its potentially devastating agenda.