Dear Readers, Warnings of a looming disaster by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources (PCRWR) indicate that Pakistan will face absolute water scarcity by 2025. It is astonishing and deplorable that despite knowing the grim situation in the water sector no govt has been able to…
In an increasingly globalised world, we are geographically very beneficially at the crossroads separating South Asia with Central Asia and the Middle East, this must be converted to our geo-political advantage. The new nation state of Pakistan felt quite vulnerable because of Indian hostility on its eastern borders and by Afghanistan’s obstinate refusal on the…
Dear Readers, With elections barely two months away, a Caretaker govt was installed on June 1, its purpose is to create a conducive environment for genuine elections and to ensure the neutrality of the govt to facilitate a smooth transfer of power from one elected govt to another. As a non-partisan administration, the caretaker’s primary…
The Soviet invasion in 1979 precipitated a large influx of Afghans into Pakistan, mainly from the Kabul elite, the affluent bought up residential homes and even small businesses, mainly in transportation. As the war reached the countryside the not so affluent started to cross over to escape being caught in the crossfire. The (mostly Pashtuns)…
Pakistan was founded in 1947 at a time when nobody was thinking about globalization even though the just finished WW II suggested that. History of the opposing military alliances had important lessons to teach; not only Pakistanis but others keep forgetting that political and economic alliances follow the military ones. Pakistan missed learning important political,…
It is easy now to criticize Pakistan’s leaders of the 50s for becoming a member of the Baghdad Pact in 1954, could our armed forces have repelled any concerted attack without being equipped in the 50s and 60s with US arms and equipment, particularly with India having weapons assiduously supplied by the Soviet Union? We…
The periodic ups and downs in US-Pakistan relationship, alternating approximately in 10 years cycles since 1971, has had us going from being the “cornerstone” of US foreign policy to being its “gravestone”. Do the decision makers at our highest levels at various institutions of state have a coherent strategy in place that they do not…
James Brien Comey Jr served as Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for four years till fired by President Donald Trump on May 9, 2017. Trump initially claimed this was because of Comey’s mishandling of the investigation into the private email of Hillary Clinton. The overriding perception prevailing is that the real reason…
Dear Readers, The advent of summer heralds the arrival of two phenomena heat wave and load shedding, a combination of the two can be deadly. At the end of March, the weather turned exceedingly hot and humid, on cue Karachi started experiencing prolonged and recurring power outages. As demand for power spiked, a sudden ‘dispute’…
With US President Trump scrapping the Iran nuclear deal and re-imposing sanctions, the possibility of conflict in the region has increased dramatically. From being the US “policeman” in the Gulf, Iran has become the acknowledged target of the US and Israel, egged on by the so-called “Sunni Coalition”. Iran’s ally Hezbollah having won the elections…
