April 2021

Civil Drone Authority Composition Headed by Secretary Aviation Division, the composition of the authority includes senior level representation from Pakistan Air Force (PAF), Civil Aviation, and ministries of Defence Production, Interior and Science and Technology. It also includes one representative each from the federating units including Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) and Gilgit Baltistan. Three eminent experts of the field …

Blue Economy The Wave of Future for Pakistan The 21st century is the century of blue economy and ocean civilization because maritime is not just a sector but a parallel economy, and all other sectors of economy cross through it. Economic globalization and the imminent threat of food insecurity are fast pushing the land economy to the ocean industry as …

Biden Needs A New Pakistan Policy For the first time in over two decades, Pakistan is not a foreign-policy priority for a new US administration. Since 2001, Pakistan has been a focus of the War on Terror and critical to US military involvement in Afghanistan. But that security imperative no longer drives US foreign policy. A shrinking US military footprint …

US-China Meet in Alaska The first talks between the Biden administration and top Chinese diplomats have concluded in Alaska. The dialogue was held between Yang Jiechi, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China’s Central Committee and director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission, State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi, and US State …

Turkey’s Economic Reforms Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has pledged to rein in government spending and bring the inflation rate below 10 percent as part of efforts to rebuild credibility with investors after years of economic turbulence. The government is prioritising efforts “to achieve single-digit inflation” and will create a price-stability committee, Erdogan said on March 12, in what had …

Trump’s Four Years in the White House How will the world remember President Trump? Donald Trump stunned the political world in 2016 when he became the first person without government or military experience ever to be elected president of the United States. His four-year tenure in the White House revealed extraordinary fissures in American society but left little doubt that …

The Moscow Conference Exploring ways to peace in Afghanistan As the May 1 deadline for America to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan draws close, efforts are afoot to speed up the peace process there. The latest sign of this came after a meeting was convened in Moscow featuring Afghan stakeholders, as well as representatives of regional and global players, to …

Saudi Arabia’s Labour Reform Initiative An end to decades-old kafala system In addition to ensuring career mobility by doing away with the sponsorship system, the new initiative offers services to employees, including job transfer (transfer to another employer), exit/re-entry, and final exit that are available via Absher and Qiwa platforms. The job mobility service allows mobility of expatriate workers between …

A Look at China’s 14th Five-Year Plan On March 11, the National People’s Congress (NPC), China’s top legislature, concluded its annual session. In this meeting, the lawmakers approved, besides many other plans and policies, the Outline of the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) for National Economic and Social Development and the Long-Range Objectives Through the Year 2035. The Plan, which includes …

Seven Piece of Land Asia Asia is the largest and most populous continent of the world. It covers an area of 29.5 percent of the land area and has about 60 percent of the world’s population. It has an area of 44,579,000 square kilometres and consists of 47 countries. The highest point in Asia is Mount Everest, Nepal, and the …