December 2015

The 2-day International Seminar on Business Opportunities, organized by the Punjab government on November 6-7, presented a perfect opportunity to the international and local businessmen and investors to have frank and candid discussions on investment opportunities in Punjab and explore avenues for possible cooperation. Going by about 150 MoUs and agreements signed on the occasion, it can be said that …

Although they have made progress, South Asian countries have struggled to make the most of the opportunity urbanization provides them to transform their economies to join the ranks of richer nations in both prosperity and livability, says a World Bank report entitled Leveraging Urbanization in South Asia: Managing Spatial Transformation for Prosperity and Livability. Difficulty in dealing with the pressures …

When Chinese President Xi Jinping came to Pakistan on an official visit in April 2015, he brought a $46 billion gift that could have significant benefits for Pakistan and a major impact on the whole region. And although there remain a number of unknowns on how this massive investment package will be implemented in the coming years, it is certain …

Russia’s interest in warming up its relations with Pakistan has increased in recent years. The two countries are cosying up at a time that is of critical importance in the region as well as the whole world. This is of pivotal importance especially in the context that the world order is changing, though slowly. This resurgence of Pak-Russia cordiality has …

Bihar, the Indian state where Buddha attained enlightenment, where the civilization’s greatest empires sprang from, and which saw the world’s first residential university, delivered a sharp blow to the ruling BJP. The election loss in the heartland state came after a period of intense debate over tolerance and India’s national identity. The fear and intimidation that has permeated India is …

The question that has been arising since the outbreak of the current flare-up in the Occupied Palestinian Territories is still looking for an answer. With the brutal Israeli response to Palestinian demonstrations in occupied Jerusalem and elsewhere in the area, people keep asking: Is it the third intifada (uprising), will it be a long sustainable one? The bloody events brought …

From Palestine to Syria, from Iraq to Nigeria and from Afghanistan to Kashmir, the whole Muslim world is ablaze. Conflicts, external interventions, foreign occupations and all such factors are adding fuel to this already burning fire. This grave state of affairs warrants a serious introspection and amelioration of policies so as to transform the Muslim lands into peaceful territories. And, …

Once again, the United States has delayed the withdrawal of its troops from Afghanistan — prolonging the United States’ longest war. Despite an earlier promise to remove US troops from the war-torn country, President Barack Obama announced on October 15 that he will keep military combat troops there at least through the end of his administration in 2016. And in …

People, who believe that the European Union is a monolithic entity that conducts business that benefits individual European nations, have made a huge mistake. Today, the EU is a crumbling bureaucratic intergovernmental organization with several centres of power serving their own interests. All of these are seeking to convert the EU into a super state, controlling Western Eurasia, exploiting its …

“The sovereign is he who decides on the exception,” said Carl Schmitt, Nazi Germany’s chief jurist, in 1922, meaning that a nation’s leader can defy the law to serve the greater good. Though Schmitt’s unwavering support for Hitler damaged his reputation for decades, today his ideas have achieved unimagined influence. Indeed, Schmitt has influenced American politics directly through his intellectual …