Pakistan must acquire interests and instincts of a reviving economy Pakistan’s relationship with India has remained among one of the most contentious in the world. If for nothing, both are especially influential at containing each other, at least. For hawks across the borders, their mutual enmity and distrust of each other form the most important and even the sole support. …
Read More »Pakistan’s Moment
How to deal with our myriad challenges? A little more than a year ago, while addressing at the opening ceremony of the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation, Chinese President Xi Jinping termed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) as the ‘Project of the Century’. “Over 2,000 years ago,” observed President Xi, in an attempt to provide blueprints for the …
Read More »Pakistan Needs More Democracy, Not Technocracy
It’s the election year in Pakistan. The end of another democratically-elected government is here. For a country like Pakistan where democratic development remained hostage to intermittent military coups, and which enjoyed its first-ever peaceful democratic transition only after the last general election held in 2013, the successful completion of another democratic tenure is, undoubtedly, a landmark achievement. But not everyone …
Read More »China-Pakistan Relations
Our Economic Prowess is the Key In the autumn of 1793, George Macartney, the leader of the first British diplomatic mission to China, met Chinese Qianlong Emperor. The envoy presented the objectives of the mission: opening of new ports for British trade, establishment of a permanent embassy, cession of a small unfortified island along China’s coast for British use, and …
Read More »Tearing Down Misplaced Perceptions about China’s Rise
This July witnessed an intense level of escalated tensions, what came to be known as Doklam standoff, between China and India, which erupted after India, posturing quite belligerently, sent its troops to interrupt the construction of a road by the Chinese military. As the dispute lingered on, it increasingly drew both countries and their masses into an intensely-contested war of …
Read More »For Pakistan, Democracy Has Never Been A Luxury
Recently, a former military dictator Pervez Musharraf made headlines. In an interview with BBC, he lauded the rules of former military dictators, saying, “Dictators set the country right … [and] military rule always brought progress to Pakistan.” Of course, he lied. But there is another trumped-up story, far terrible, told also by a former and the first military dictator, Ayub …
Read More »Normalcy in Pakistan’s Internal and External Affairs
In July 1946, All India Muslim League found itself in hot water of political environment of the Subcontinent: the Congress was adamant in rejection of League’s demand for independent Pakistan and the Britishers were also reluctant to acknowledge this demand. Left with no choice, the Muslim League called upon Muslims to peacefully observe the Direct Action Day on August 16, …
Read More »In our foreign affairs, as in our domestic life, truth hurts
Though most of the people won’t have come across a chance to see a chameleon, they would, surely, have some idea of it. It’s a great species in that it upskills humans to make them learn some basic instincts of survival. According to biologists, the key behind chameleon’s survival rests in its amazing ability to fade into background and disappear. …
Read More »The Elusive Dream of Pursuing Peace through Strength
“To pursue peace through strength, it shall be the policy of the United States to rebuild the U.S. Armed Forces.” — President Donald J. Trump Given his view of pursuing peace through strength, the US President, Donald Trump, is not alone, not even first, in viewing the world as a dangerous political jungle filled with untamable predators. Pursuing peace through …
Read More »General Sharif leads the ‘Muslim NATO’ Prospects and Challenges
Rumours have been aplenty since spring 2016 that Pakistan’s former Chief of Army Staff, General Raheel Sharif, will be leading the Saudi Arabia-led Islamic Military Alliance – being dubbed as ‘Muslim NATO’ – to counter terrorism. Now, we have formal confirmation: the general has agreed to head the 41-country coalition force. The move is highly significant and is likely to …
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