The population paradigm
For decades, Pakistan’s population discourse has been anchored in an outdated narrative: the country’s growing numbers are viewed as the primary obstacle to development. With a population exceeding 242 million,…
A six-million-dollar banana?
LADIES and gentlemen, imagine a hypothetical experiment. Suppose I buy a banana for Rs10 and tape it to a wall. At the end of this rather banal experiment, what if…
The end or a new dawn?
Ever since Francis Fukuyama proclaimed the triumph of liberalism following the collapse of the Soviet Union – the so-called ‘red peril’ – many around the world celebrated liberalism as the…
Milei, Argentina and Pakistan
ARGENTINA, in many respects, resembles Pakistan. Once the superstar economy of South America doing reasonably well, it has had to go through repeated economic turmoil through decades, making it a familiar…
Pakistan’s Hobbesian nightmare
HUMAN history is replete with governance innovations. Some of these have changed the course of history. But perhaps none was as cataclysmic and transformational as the founding of the ‘nation…
Cultural change for economy
THE topic of Pakistan’s non-ending economic quagmire elicits many proposals, some good, some reworded, and some repetitive. Rarely, if ever, is there a discussion on cultural aspects impinging on economic…
Debt woes
THE G20 summit held recently in Bengaluru, India ended in controversy. ‘Burdened’ by the travails of a world in conflict and economic collapse, the Group of Twenty failed to develop…
In the words of Chomsky
We live in the same world and belong to the same species. Our experiences – both individually and collectively – are fundamentally similar despite our vast variety and differences, and…
Capitalism’s enduring dominance
Having been on a roll for more than seven decades, the liberal world order seems to have entered its sunset period. The obituary of the liberal order is being written…
Against the tide
In Pakistan, change occurs at a snail’s pace, a stark contrast to Facebook’s (now Meta) ethos of ‘move fast and break things’. Instead, the prevailing approach could be described as…
