By Brian X. Chen If you love technology, it may be time for a group hug: This year has been rough for consumer technology. From exploding smartphones and hoverboards to the proliferation of fake news on social media, many of our tech hardware, software and web products suffered embarrassing failures. Behemoths like Google, Facebook and Samsung Electronics were on the …

By Nasir Ali Panhwar Changing minds for climate change was the title of four day international conference organised by the Pakistan-US Alumni Network (PUAN) in Islamabad recently. PUAN is the alumni network of the students and professionals, who have participated in US government sponsored exchange programmes. With more than 19,000 alumni across Pakistan, PUAN is one of the largest alumni …

by Brahma Chellaney NEW DELHI – Asia, the world’s largest and fastest-developing continent, has less fresh water per capita than any other continent. This has helped foster growing interstate and intrastate disputes over shared water resources. An MIT study published this year found a high risk that Asia’s current water crisis could worsen to severe water shortages by 2050.

By: Yasmeen Aftab Ali Lack of balance of policies for then West and East Pakistan, flawed socio-economic strategies, geographical distance between both the areas, and language controversy in Bangladesh imposing Urdu as a national language were all major contributing factors in the eventual dismemberment of now Dacca. “People of East Pakistan, particularly the progressive forces were not prepared to accept …

MUHAMMAD ARIF WATTO Pakistan is close to being classified as a ‘water scarced’ country from ‘water stressed’ country, according to the Asian Development Outlook 2013. The current per capita water availability of about 1100m3 has been decreased by almost 400pc since early 1950s, and is further projected to decrease by 375m3 by 2025. As the population grows, the agriculture sector …

AFSHAN SUBOHI Pakistan’s track record on inclusive development has not been enviable. However, the endorsement of the Sustainable Development Goals by the private sector has rekindled hope of extended ownership and better performance. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) embody the current global social contract and ends in 2030. It was launched at the UN annual meeting in Washington in 2015, …

NASIR JAMAL Punjab has spent just a fraction — 16pc — of its total development fund of Rs550bn during the first five months of the present financial year, from July through November. Experts blame the line departments’ lack of capacity to plan, design and implement projects, bureaucratic lethargy, and political interference for the slow pace of utilisation of funds meant …

MALIK ASAD With 3 million pending court cases in Pakistan to date, this huge backlog clearly indicates weakened criminal and civil justice system delivery mechanisms. Without more vigorous implementation of existing rules and procedures, say jurists, and extensive judicial reforms, the log jam is unlikely to be settled. Consider these figures. According to data collected until Nov. 15, 2016 from …

ISHAQ TANOLI | WASEEM AHMAD SHAH •    Under the Code of Criminal Procedure, the police must investigate a case within 14 days of registration and submit a charge sheet. •    The Sindh Witness Protection Act, 2013, stipulating security for witnesses is yet to be implemented.

ASAD JAMAL The consistent and apparently rising incidence of violence against women is a sign of both societal degeneration and the inability to understand the crux of the problem. In the strictly legal and criminal justice system context, there is misplaced belief that solutions to the current morass lie in simply enacting more laws and prescribing harsher punishments. The policy …