Daily Current Affairs

By: Shahid Kardar Common sense would suggest that investments under the CPEC banner present an enviable opportunity for our economy to jump onto a significantly higher growth path on a sustainable basis. Is this logic and the envisaged gains valid allowing for the terms and conditions governing these ventures and the capability of Pakistan’s economy to exploit its potential? The …

By: Shahid Javed Burki In 1999, a group representing the world’s largest economies decided to meet regularly to reflect on the issues their economies faced. A decade later, they raised the level of the meetings to the heads of state. Represented in the group are 19 nations and the European Union. The largest group of nations belongs to Asia. It …

A high-standard, non-discriminatory accountability law that brings all pillars of the state under its net should be the starting point For the third time in four years — the longest single stretch of time that he has been continuously prime minister in his three stints — Nawaz Sharif is battling for survival in office. Each time he had secured a …

Tucked away in a corner of the old PECHS Block 6 lies a remnant of Karachi’s more recent history. Long before General Ziaul Haq mandated the study of Arabic in state schools, a private language school, the Society for the Promotion of Arabic (SPA), was busy preparing Saudi-bound Pakistanis in the rudiments of the sacred tongue. For years, Arabic teachers, …

Last month, with the Saudi and Emirati-led efforts to isolate Qatar, and the militant Islamic State (IS) group’s attacks in Tehran, new fronts opened in the Greater Middle East war, making Pakistan’s regional balancing act even more difficult. It wasn’t supposed to be this hard. When Nawaz Sharif became prime minister for the third time in 2013, there was an …

By: Hussain H Zaidi There was a strong sense of deja vu as one watched the protesters clash with the police on the eve of the G-20 summit in Germany’s port city of Hamburg. For several years, whenever such multilateral events take place, people who are disillusioned with capitalism – as well as its celebrated progenies, globalization and free trade …

By: Dr Ayesha Razzaque, Dr. Muhammad Usman Ilyas Though situation in most universities looks indeed bleak, the HEC has taken a half-step forward in the right direction and provided some guidance on upcoming changes This article is with reference to Dr Pervez Hoodbhoy’s recent article titled “Pakistan’s professor mafia” which appeared in Dawn on July 1, 2017. Dr. Hoodbhoy’s key …

BY: MAZAHIR HUSSAIN ZAIR U.S. policies and Pakistan The bilateral relationship between US and Pakistan seems to be driven by giving priority to US national security interests in the region. US also has no respect for Pakistani courts and laws, as was witnessed in the Raymond Davis case. After 9/11 many incident took place between Pakistan and U.S which strained …

By: Ishrat Husain ACCORDING to official sources, the recent decline of Pakistani exports is due to adverse global economic conditions. Others attribute this, inter alia, to the appreciation of the Pakistani rupee. Both these factors may be partially true but defy empirical evidence as single-factor explanations. Indian exports have expanded by 62 per cent, Bangladeshi by 69pc and Sri Lankan …

By: SYED AKHTAR ALI ISLAMABAD: The second turbine of 660MW was commissioned a few days back. While it is highly commendable that the energy crisis situation is about to end with the completion of many projects that are under implementation, there are challenges that remain and would have to be sorted out. We will mention only some of them, a …