Daily Current Affairs

As the interim finance minister and her team left for Paris to present Pakistan’s case before the FATF plenary, the bank accounts of a notorious fourth scheduler were being unfrozen and he was otherwise preparing to join mainstream political processes. Months of hard work on the part of Pakistan’s government and banking institutions, as well as legitimate non-state actors, have …

As another democratic transition is under way, it is necessary to remind ourselves of the reversal of the usual civil-military leadership, where the military establishment was on the defensive in 2007 and people had an elevated level of belief in civilian governance, hopes have dimmed as of today. There are clear signs of political alienation. The country’s political leadership not …

The 18th Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit has brought Pakistan much closer to China and Russia as it seeks regional security and cement economic linkages with SCO members. By joining the SCO as a full member state, Pakistan has done exactly what Confucius famously advised: “When it is obvious that the goals cannot be reached, don’t adjust the goals, adjust …

ISLAMABAD: The global watchdog body on terror financing has formally included Pakistan on Friday on its grey list by setting new Herculean tasks ahead for Islamabad to implement in coming months. Accepting Pakistan plan in a week-long meeting, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) in its Paris meeting decided that Pakistan in June 2018 made a high-level political commitment to …

Vagaries of Consciousness Nation’s coffers would be nearly empty by the time the new government starts While election frenzy is griping the country, few indications are available if the political parties are abreast of the challenges they would be facing if they get a chance to form the government, and what policies they plan to adopt to deal with them. …

The Rawal Dam is considered to be one of the major sources of drinking water for people residing in Islamabad and Rawalpindi. But from its latest pictures, it is heart-wrenching to see that extremely hot weather and low rainfall has left the dam barren and dry. According to media reports, the water level has gone below the dead level. Once …

Interim federal minister & ex-defence secretary Whenever two neighbouring states with strong political and military standoff acquire nuclear capabilities with effective delivery means, the entire gambit of diplomacy and warfare changes. Nuclear parity (that exists between Pakistan and India) if properly understood by political and military leaderships, nearly precludes nuclear war as well as conventional military operations. This automatically pushes …

Every economy undergoes various ups and downs and business cycles caused by many internal and external factors affecting businesses in general and some in particular. Pakistan in its history of 71 years has seen many such upheavals starting with Korean War and subsequent devaluation. There was another major shock resulting of dismemberment of Pakistan in 1971 affecting the businesses owned …

Arriving in Beijing last month, I knew I would not be able to connect to Google, Facebook or Uber. As strange as it was to go without these staples of online life in the West, it was even stranger to find that local Chinese didn’t seem to feel deprived at all. They search through Baidu, get their social media fix …

A temporary Taliban truce, despite the opportunity it presents, doesn’t mean peace is about to break out anytime soon. In recent days, unprecedented developments in Afghanistan have brought new hope to one of the most war-stricken countries in the world. The Afghan government and the Taliban declared separate brief cease-fires to mark the Eid al-Fitr holiday. Over a remarkable three-day …