April 2016

By the standards of any other Western country, the role played by faith in America’s presidential race seems enormous. A recent poll by the Pew Research Centre confirmed that being a professed atheist would be a deadly liability for anyone hoping to enter the White House. Some 51% of voters would be less likely to vote for a candidate who …

Russia is not hiding its goals in its Syrian war, and is not ambiguous about its alliance with Iran and the Assad regime. Moscow has decided that the war in Syria is a Russian war on “Islamist terrorism,” that will not stop until it declares victory. Whether it prevails or becomes bogged down in the Syrian quagmire, Russia has decided …

The United States and its Western allies have legitimate concerns as to why they should risk blood and treasure in support of Georgia, Moldova or Ukraine, especially if providing these distant countries with financial support, military assistance and political leverage in international affairs could lead to a confrontation with Russia. Meanwhile, the Russian bear remains unpredictable and aggressive. It is …

The arrival in Europe of more than 1 million asylum seekers in 2015 rattled the EU like no crisis before it. The EU’s current institutional and legislative arrangements were clearly not up to dealing with the huge influx of migrants, and the crisis laid bare deep divisions among the member states. Depending on the extent to which the EU can …

Remember that delightful period right after the Cold War, when globalization was the buzzword du jour, democracy was spreading like wildfire, and America’s political and economic system seemed like an attractive model? Academics who should have known better believed realism was headed for the dustbin of history, and lots of smart people thought tyrants, dictators, potentates, and other authoritarians were …

“On 23rd March, 1940, a group of valiant and fiercely determined individuals gathered at Manto Park, Lahore, and resolved to give their fellow countrymen a new homeland.” This is the lead line of a soul-jerking ad I happened to go through in a newspaper of a renowned media group inviting ideas from its readers on what in their view our …

1 – Saudi Aramco Headquarters: Dhahran, Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia manages its oil reserves through state-owned Saudi Aramco. In 2014, Saudi Aramco’s average daily oil production was 12 million barrels per day (B/D), making it the world’s largest private oil company by production. Aramco increased oil production amid a global glut that drove benchmark prices down almost 50 percent last …

CONSENSUS ON CENSUS The already-delayed census has been further delayed by the government for some excuses. Perhaps there is a lack of consensus on census. For sure, there is no dearth of manpower in the country but what we actually require is its management. Presently, many of the crises of Pakistan may be attributed to a chronic negligence over the …

In order to ensure a regular supply of fresh blood to the country’s bureaucracy — rightly called the administrative arm of the government — Federal Public Service Commission (FPSC) is assigned the task of selecting the best brains from amongst the country’s youth. This is a delicate task and fulfilling it, adequately and effectively, requires high standards of professionalism on …