February 2017

In July 2016, a report was presented at an international Aids conference held in Durban, South Africa. The report, which consisted of the findings of the meta-analysis coordinated by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington in Seattle, USA, should have rung alarm bells but it went largely unnoticed. It suggested that the prevalence …

The year 2016 proved a watershed for Pakistan in terms of foreign policy and external relations. It was in the second half of this year that the newfound bonhomie between Pakistan and its Cold War adversary, Russia, started becoming more and more spirited and lively. In September, troops from both countries held their first-ever joint military exercises— the Friendship 2016—in …

The worst feeling a human can ever face is being helpless and worthless. This is precisely what the trans-genders in Pakistan feel with the unjust treatment they are meted out by the society. Transgenders, in Pakistan, and the region at large, are rarely respected and most of them lead lives of abuse, violence, exploitation and misery. Ironically, they are viewed …

Pakistan’s relations with the United States have deteriorated significantly in the final months of the Barack Obama presidency. Obama feels that foot-dragging by Pakistan has not helped him to deliver on his ambition to withdraw from the wars initiated by his predecessor George W. Bush. Islamabad, in Washington’s view, could have done more to eliminate the sanctuaries in Pakistan’s tribal …

By: Dr Ghazala Mansuri Over 80 percent of Pakistanis consistently report that their economic wellbeing has either deteriorated or remained the same. Only 20 percent, disproportionately concentrated in the very top of the distribution, feel that they are better off and similarly small numbers believe that economic conditions have improved for their locality. If we took a poll today, it …

Economic development is the process by which a state improves the economic, political and social wellbeing of its citizens without any sort of discrimination. This continual process makes the country and its people grow and prosper and also helps the country in gaining respect in the community of nations. When Pakistan emerged on the map of the world, in 1947, …

Recollecting his earlier article titled ‘The End of History’ that culminated into his famous book ‘The End of History and the Last Man’, Professor Francis Fukuyama of the Stanford University noted that he had argued ‘end point of mankind’s ideological evolution’ in the article, and that ‘the final form of human government’ had constituted the ‘end of history’, which generated …

“As we consolidate the gains of Operation Zarb-e-Azb, we will continue to take action against terrorists of all hue and colour. Our resolve to break the nexus between terrorists, criminality and corruption is unflinching.” — General (Retd.) Raheel Sahrif (Former COAS) Corruption is at the very heart of many of the biggest issues the world is faced with at present. …

New estimates show that just eight men own the same wealth as the poorest half of the world. As growth benefits the richest, the rest of society suffers. The very design of our economies and the principles of our economics have taken us to this extreme, unsustainable and unjust point. Our economy must stop excessively rewarding those at the top …

It was, even by the dispiriting standards of Israeli-Palestinian diplomacy, a futile concept: a peace conference without either of the warring parties. On January 15th, diplomats from more than 70 countries flew to Paris for a summit against which Israeli officials had been inveighing for weeks. After a full day of debate, the diplomats issued a two-page declaration that urged …