An evolving synopsis from Mideast to South Asia Franz Kafka, a German-Jewish Czech writer of repute, was quite farsighted as he penned an unfinished fiction story about a badger in his novel ‘The Burrow’. Therein, in his imaginary description, he noted that the polyphyletic creature becomes obsessed with securing itself against imagined threats. While not…
If Caracas is Washington’s backyard where it could get away with anything, Tehran too believes that the Straits of Hormuz is under its tutelage. Those are the evolving signatures of realpolitik as new alignments are being erected in pursuit of a new world order. The abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in a seamless military…
It is no secret that Pakistan’s economy is largely informal, unaudited and dictated by lenders. This enigma has been there for decades, compelling the resource-rich, four-seasonal landscape and resilient nation to hang out with a begging bowl, and that too at the mercy of Shakespearian callous donors. They desire a pound of flesh without spilling…
Pakistan and India have never been easy neighbours. They have nursed an agenda of otherness since their inception, as the bitter memoirs of Partition had kept them at bay. Irrespective of the fact that they have a shared history, culture and a geography that cannot be done away with, both the nation-states preferred antagonism over…
Having lived and worked in the UAE for more than a decade, it was heart-wrenching for me to see my second home come under a reign of fire. The once business capitals of the Middle East are in a shambles, as corporates, investors and tourists are keeping their fingers crossed. Likewise, the death and destruction…
Iran is fighting an existential war. Till these lines were being written, Tehran had surprised the pundits of doom by holding fast its fort, and was unrelenting to the Israeli-United States aggression. This is not another war on the Islamic Republic — a country which has braced four decades of sanctions, embargo and an eight-year…
Rabindranath Tagore, the legendary Bengali Nobel laureate poet, said: “You can’t cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water.” The Bengali nation has time and again proved that they are resilient and possess the due courage to take a dip in the oceans, when required. From A.K Fazlul Haq to Hussain Shaheed…
The Islamic Republic is back from the brink. Yet, it is in the woods of uncertainty, coupled with inherent domestic revulsion and fear of a plausible aggression. The uprising in December was economic-centric, though. It is laudable, nonetheless, that the government this time around handled the crisis with more sagacity and openly admitted its governance…
Alexander Hamilton’s ghost is apparently circumambulating in the White House. One of the founding fathers and the first US Secretary of Treasury from 1789 to 1795, he espoused the notion that America must never be dependent on any outside power for core components, such as raw material to finished products. That was the inception of…
Alexander the Great, who passed through today’s Rawalpindi Potohar region, in 327 BC, to fight the Battle of Hydaspes with King Porus at the twilight of his unprecedented era, made history as he struck a treasure trove. It is narrated that the warrior’s horses started licking the mountain stones of what is today known as…
