April 2020

Pakistan-Turkey Partnership and the Muslim World Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s recent visit to Pakistan came at a testing time for both countries, and manifested truly the special nature of their fraternal relationship. Pakistan-Turkey ties are rooted in their history and culture going back to the centuries of Muslim rule in India, but a unique emotional dimension of this relationship goes …

Four Cardinal Principles for Pakistan’s water diplomacy in the region must be based on four cardinal principles: Pakistan’s regional diplomacy should seek to proactively respond to India’s efforts to keep a lid on water as a bilateral matter and deal with each neighbour separately. Pakistan is not the only country with which India has unresolved water issues. In fact, India …

‘DEAL OF THE CENTURY’  President Donald Trump very recently rolled out, in his usual flowery words, “the peace proposal of the century” in the US, strangely with only his good friend Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by his side. He was assisted by his son-in-law Jared Kushner in chalking out the plan. Trump is volatile, simplistic and allegedly suffers from …

CRIMINAL LAW AND  THE PUNJAB SENTENCING  ACT, 2019 Constitutionality of Criminal Law    Modern states claim to assert their monopoly over lawful use of force within their jurisdiction through criminal law; in this sense, criminal law enables states to maintain their internal national security and to keep order in the society. Historically, Pakistan’s criminal law has not been rewritten. Colonial …

Coronavirus and Global Economy There are growing apprehensions among financial experts that coronavirus outbreak and the economic fallout it has sparked could plunge the world economy into a recession. Having largely ignored COVID-19 as it spread across China, global financial markets reacted strongly when the virus spread to Europe and the Middle East, stoking fears of a global pandemic. Since …

CORONA PANDEMIC With coronavirus cases on a rapid rise, the World Health Organization (WHO) officially changed their classification of COVID-19, the mysterious viral pneumonia-like disease caused by the novel coronavirus, from a public health emergency of international concern to a pandemic. While making the declaration, the organization’s director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, “WHO has been assessing this outbreak round the …

Cardinal Rules of Life Laiba Muhammad Aamir Being born into this world is not something we have chosen ourselves. The body given to our lingering soul was completely out of our control. We were thrown into this world without our will and wish. We could be born as an insect, bird, animal or flower. Martin Heidegger, a German philosopher, says …

European Union and the Emerging Great-Power Competition World War II, and the period of decolonization that followed it, brought to an end the centuries-long global domination of Europe’s great powers. After 1945, neither of the global powers—the United States and the Soviet Union—was European, and a plethora of newly independent nation-states bounded onto the world stage. Following the dissolution of …

US-Taliban Deal and the Future of Afghanistan After more than eighteen years of war in Afghanistan, the United States and the Taliban reached an agreement in what were both sides’ most intensive efforts yet to end the Washington’s longest war. The agreement, which was signed in Doha, Qatar, in the presence of representatives from Pakistan, Qatar, Turkey, India, Indonesia, Uzbekistan …

US-Taliban Peace Deal What next? Zafar Iqbal Yousafzai Finally, the United States and Taliban have signed a peace deal in Doha, the capital of Qatar, after 18-month-long negotiations. As per the terms of the agreement, the United States will start withdrawing its troops within 135 days of the deal and will have to complete it within fourteen months—as per an …