2015

How to manage time and workload to improve efficiency One of the main causes of stress that a public servant often faces in his service is mismanagement of time or failure in managing activities in time. There may be a number of reasons behind this phenomenon, ranging from time-wasters to lack of planning, organization or controlling activities in terms of …

During Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s latest visit to Kabul, the leaders of Afghanistan and Pakistan once again reiterated their determination for building close relations and cooperating on the Afghan peace efforts. The Premier’s visit was the first since the inauguration of a National Unity government in Afghanistan. The Kabul rendezvous highlights recent efforts of the Afghan government to kick-start Pakistan-assisted …

A false sense of optimism seems to be growing on the state of the Pakistan Economy, a notion being consciously promoted by the economic managers, which if not checked can have larger long-term negative implications. First, complacency can set in and the much-awaited economic reforms, necessary to correct the underlying malaise of the economy, will once again be put on …

Introduction The prefatory question is not ‘how to measure,’ but is ‘why to measure’ terrorism. The question may be open to many an answer; one response with erudite credentials came from Bruno S. Frey and Simon Luechinger of the Institute of Empirical Research in Economics, University of Zurich, Switzerland. In a paper entitled “Measuring Terrorism” (2003), they opined that the …

The global community has failed dismally in meeting the challenge of providing all children with a quality education. This failure is tragically apparent in Pakistan, world’s sixth most populous country. With one of the lowest education budgets in the world, development of education sector in Pakistan faces serious impediments. Pakistan needs to break out of it’s complacency with poor education …

The massacre of about four dozen men and women belonging to Ismaili community in Karachi on the fateful morning of May 13 is yet another reminder; if at all any other reminder was needed, of gravity of the problem of homegrown terrorism. This is the second most gruesome act of terrorism after the carnage at Peshawar’s Army Public School on …

Now how do you top this as a geopolitical entrance? Eight JF-17 Thunder fighter jets escorting Chinese President Xi Jinping on board an Air China Boeing as he entered Pakistani air space. And these JF-17s were built as a China-Pakistan joint project. Silk Road? Better yet; silk skyway. Just to drive the point home — and into everyone’s home — …

While acknowledging the fact that the impacts of colonialism, whether of positive or of negative implications, on Muslim world are, by the degree of their complexity and more importantly because of the intensity of the involved intricacy, are easy to describe and hard to measure; however, here, it would be a sheer injustice on our part if we deprive the …

Recently, Pakistan opened its first-ever solar power plant in the sun-baked lands of Bahawalpur. It is one of the first Chinese investments under the brimming partnerships, and this 100MW is a pilot project of the Government of the Punjab. Its two sponsors include the Quaid-e-Azam Solar Power (Private) Limited which is wholly owned by the Government of the Punjab, and …

The Saudi-Iranian rivalry has been roiling the peace in the Middle East. The latest stage of this ‘duel’ is Yemen. Already the poorest country in the Middle East, wracked by soaring unemployment, dwindling oil and water reserves and recent struggle for power among various Yemeni factions and personalities, now Yemen is being torn apart by this proxy war between Riyadh …