Corruption, crime, chaos, Karachi
On gaining independence, Karachi – a modest trading post with 450,000 inhabitants – became the capital city of Pakistan. Over the years, it welcomed all into its magnanimous fold. Today,…
Struggling for wheat flour
IT is happening all the time now. As Ramazan proceeds, a huge rush, sometimes ending in stampedes, at food distribution sites is a common sight. In Karachi, 12 people —…
Waiting for a lifeline
THE spectacle of desperate men and women thronging the shops for subsidised flour provides just one glimpse of the worsening level of privation. A father of six died in a…
The job begins with measurement
“The philosophers have hitherto only interpreted the world in various ways,” Karl Marx famously said. “The point, however, is to change it.” Think Pakistan and we might have to turn…
Restructuring academia
The faculty at Pakistani universities is extremely busy. Its only priority seems to be ‘research publications’ as the number of research articles published has become an important criterion to gauge…
Billion-euro bill for: business as France hopes riots over
Joseph Guret surveyed the charred remains of his tobacco shop outside Paris, one of the hundreds of businesses ransacked in riots that have caused an estimated one billion euros across…
From the virtual to the real
‘Ghareeb kay bachay’ versus ‘ameeron kay bachay’. The intriguing refrain does the rounds as Pakistanis cannot help but group people in Imran Khan’s discredited protest caravan and then compare one…
Resilience, helplessness or loss of trust?–I
The Pakistanis are battling an inflation rate of over 35 percent, a policy rate of 21 percent, depletion in value of their currency (PkR) by over 40 percent in the…
Austerity is the only option?
The illusion of economic recovery has already started unraveling. The prime indicators of economic sentiments in the eyes of the public are PKR-USD parity and petroleum prices. Without debating on…
Hungary holds up EU plan to ban Russian oil
The European Union’s hopes to quickly impose a ban on Russian oil imports could be dashed after Hungary demanded expensive guarantees for its own fuel supplies, diplomats say. “I am…
