Faulty assumptions
Pakistan has good diplomats but an underperforming diplomacy. And the reasons are many. Where does the main fault lie? Not necessarily with the diplomats as they do not make policy;…
How US history is whitewashed
This June, like so many over the past three decades, small armies of graduate students, high school teachers and college faculty descended upon US cities throughout flyover country to score…
Savarkar’s legacy, Modi’s reality
Two months before his latest escalation of militaristic policies, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi publicly honoured Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, a significant influence on both his political stance and ideological framework.…
The flawed economics of the IGCEP
One of the ten commandments for electricity planning is ‘Thou Shalt Not Expand Electricity Supply Without Industrial Demand’. New power plants become stranded, costly monuments to poor planning without industrial…
The sun rises on the power grid
The economic landscape constantly evolves through innovation and obsolescence – a process economist Joseph Schumpeter called ‘creative destruction’. New technologies and models replace outdated ones, as seen in the historical…
Trump Trade in retreat?
It’s still early days, of course, but it seems the so-called Trump Trade is already unraveling, and with it, many of the assumptions that shaped global markets over the past…
IMF programme: lack of ingenuity?
The narrative led by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb is that the economy has begun to show signs of improvement, reflected by a contracting current account…
Property is power
PAKISTAN’S economic situation is unquestionably dire. The yawning trade and current account deficits, galloping inflation and default prospects have generated significant comment. It is noteworthy, though, that the working masses,…
Maulana vs Mevlana
WITHOUT going into the debate of who the honorific can be bestowed upon, let us focus on the etymology of the root word ‘maula’. In Arabic, it means ‘master’; with…
Who defends the Constitution?
ON the day the National Assembly was dissolved, Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari tweeted: “We cannot under any circumstances compromise on the constitution. SC must rise to the challenge & prove our constitution is…
