The time has been reached when all nations have to start working on building long lasting cooperation with each other on multiple levels, on all issues, including the Indus Water Treaty and have to treat each other like good neighbors. The treaty has to stand, as this can be a source for future cooperation between India and Pakistan. Roughly three …

James M. Lindsay Stories began appearing midway through 2016 asking whether it was the worst year ever. It wasn’t. It’s wasn’t even the worst year in the last half century. (Try 1968. Or 1974. Or 1979.) But 2016 certainly experienced its share of significant world events. Here are my top ten. You may want to read what follows closely. Several …

By Ali Ousat Although the Punjab government has succeeded in implementing major health policies and taken effective steps for the completion of health projects, many schemes are still incomplete despite tall claims by the government. On the other hand, the central Induction policy, which was introduced to break the monopoly of Young Doctors Association (YDA) in different hospitals, was much …

By Ammar Sheikh The higher education sector in Punjab saw many ups and downs in 2016, seeing many changes in the provincial setup with the government’s biggest challenge coming in the appointment of vice-chancellors at universities. The delays continued from 2015 to 2016 and regular appointments could not be made. The appointments by the Punjab government were challenged in the …

By Zamir Akram Despite trying to load the dice in India’s favour, the Obama administration has failed to deliver on its promise to ensure NSG membership for India during its tenure which ends in mid-January 2017. Due to the principled position taken by China and supported by more than 10 countries, consensus has eluded the NSG so far with the …

An Admirable Step In our educational system, students, unfortunately, are trained only for getting good grades in exam; they are not encouraged to participate in co- and extracurricular activities. Our students prefer to work hard, not smart, and that’s why we are not able to compete at international level. To overcome this problem, Mehran University of Engineering and Technology Shaheed …

The year 2016 will go down in history as one of momentous changes for Pakistan. It was during this year that the policies adopted by the incumbent government started bearing fruit. On the internal front, a drastic fall in the incidents of terrorism, restoration of peace in Karachi—the financial hub of Pakistan—largely back-to-normal situation in Balochistan, great strides in terms …

BY Yasmeen Aftab Ali A proposition that bears pondering Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif in December 2016 offered Iran’s willingness to mediate between India and Pakistan over the issue of Kashmir that has refused to let normalise relationship between both. The friendly relations between India and Iran make this an interesting preposition. “The Iranian offer to mediate between Pakistan and …

BY Tariq Mushtaq A synonym for hell The Russian military warned the US against striking the Syrian army, stressing that Russian air defense weapons in Syria stand ready to fend off any attack. The range of Russian S-300 and S-400 air defense missile systems would “surprise” any country operating its aircraft over Syria The United States, since long, is involved …

BY Imran Malik China hopes to engage, dominate and rule the Heartland The Cold War era saw the US and its allies deploying their militaries to circumscribe, dominate and contain the Soviets and now the Chinese to within the Heartland CPEC, in the light of Mackinder’s Heartland Theory, makes for an interesting study. He had divided the world into three …