Daily Articles

Energy security is one of the hallmarks of success for any economy in the present times. The paucity of energy has haunted the economy of Pakistan for a decade now. Severe shortages and intermittent supplies have led the country into an energy dystopia. After the enactment of the 18th Amendment, all four provinces have the right to use natural gas …

The heart-wrenching picture of a Yemeni child drinking water from a leaked pipeline in the war-raged country has shamed humanity. The picture recently went viral on social media but failed to soften the heart of those who have orchestrated the Yemen civil war along sectarian lines, killing more than 10,000 civilians and wounding over 40,000 others. The war has displaced …

Media reports claim President Donald Trump let loose on his generals behind closed doors, blasting them royally for their startling failures in Afghanistan, America’s longest war. The president has many faults and is a lousy judge of character. But he was absolutely right to read the riot act to the military brass for daring to ask for a very large …

THE economy must grow at eight per cent per annum to accommodate the annual entrants to the labour force, as against the average rate of below 5pc that we have achieved since the mid-1970s. Can this shift to a higher growth path be achieved on a sustainable basis? The challenges in the short to medium term are formidable, with a …

The United States remains unsettled while the administration headed by President Donald Trump is engaged in finding its feet on which to stand. The process is taking much longer than was expected by even those who did not have much faith in the ability of the new man in the White House to lead the country and the world. The …

Why people in rural areas prefer traditional dispute resolution forums over the formal justice system? Last month a Panchayat, a village council of elders, in Raja Ram’s rural locality of Multan district ordered a complainant’s family to undertake a revenge rape of a girl whose brother was accused of having earlier raped another girl from the complainant family. Interestingly, both …

People have been protesting the construction of nuclear power plants, especially the ones being built near Karachi. Is nuclear really necessary when we have plenty of wind and sun to power the country? A series of groundbreaking ceremonies were lined up for the former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif. Four were energy projects and he was happily going to declare a …

WHEN the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, US President George H. W. Bush and Secretary of State James Baker promised Moscow that Nato would not be moved closer to Russia’s new borders. That promise was broken some years later by the Bill Clinton administration when the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland were incorporated into Nato, followed soon after by Estonia, …

When Narendra Modi was elected prime minister of India, expectations for his domestic agenda were high given his much lauded tenure managing the state of Gujarat for more than a decade. But since then, some of the greatest surprises have come from his numerous foreign policy moves. In some ways, things haven’t quite worked out in the manner Modi would …

The IMF’s recent press release pursuant to Article IV consultation with the government of Pakistan indicates that the country’s real exchange rate is overvalued by between 10 and 20 percent. (The real exchange rate refers to the nominal or market exchange rate that is adjusted for the home country’s rate of inflation relative to inflation in countries that are competitors …