Study Kit

By Talat Masood The power of media has become so pervasive that it influences national policy, sets its own priorities on reporting events and above all constructs national discourse. Since several weeks matters connected with Panama Leaks have saturated the television and radio news and talk shows. Lately, the news of General (retd) Raheel Sharif’s possible appointment as commander of …

By Harris Khalique Part – II Side-effect In any state and society, tolerance for dissent is the first step towards making the state and society internally strong, safe and civilised. However, the word ‘tolerate’ has a certain degree of uneasiness latent in its meaning. That one tolerates this dissent from one’s own position out of some social, economic, legal or …

By Rizwan Asghar The successful test-firing of the submarine-launched, nuclear-capable cruise missile Babur-III has made many people in our strategic community feel proud. The missile, with a range of 450 kilometres, is being considered “a major scientific milestone” because it gives Pakistan a sea-based second-strike nuclear capability. Second-strike capability enables a country to absorb the first strike and still retaliate …

The truth may ultimately prevail about demonetisation, but the government might be able to maintain the loyalty of a large part of the public for a long time, says Amartya Sen More than two months after the demonetisation, Nobel Laureate and economist Amartya Sen says that any proper “economic reasoning could not have sensibly led to such a ham-handed policy.” …

Joseph Dana Imagine sitting in a plane, flying high above the clouds when suddenly the passengers realise there is nobody in the cockpit. The plane is flying itself, but it is unclear where the aircraft is headed and whether it will land. This hypothetical situation, according to Polish socialist Zygmunt Bauman who died last week at the age of 91, …

Santiago Zabala We will remember 2016 not only for the return of populism throughout the West, but also for the blindness of those who could not see the difference between right-wing and leftist populism. This distinction is vital, and overlooking it further contributes to the degradation of a public discourse that is already in trouble. The rise of both kinds …

By DAVID SCOTT MATHIESON YANGON, Myanmar — Just days before the November 2015 general election, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was asked how she would remedy the long-running repression of the Rohingya, a Muslim minority, if her party came to power. She replied: “There’s a Burmese saying: You have to make big problems small and small problems disappear.” Less than …

Shaukat Qadir The news that General Raheel Sharif is tipped to take over command of the Middle East Initiative on Peace and Security (MEIPS) has given rise to considerable controversy and criticism from numerous quarters. Firstly a clarification. Raheel’s appointment is still a proposal and awaits finalisation. I believe its finalisation will depend on whether the proposal is acceptable to …

DAVOS: Just eight individuals, all men, own as much wealth as the poorest half of the world’s population, Oxfam said on Monday in a report calling for action to curtail rewards for those at the top. As decision makers and many of the super-rich gather for this week’s World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos, the charity’s report suggests …

Anjum Altaf HOW does one get a grip on the proposed China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and its associated investments without any hard information except for the hype? In the absence of any mechanism for credible evaluation I suggest we hold it up against a historical parallel and see what emerges by way of tentative conclusions. Some discussion grounded in real …