Holistic TB care
GLOBALLY, Pakistan ranks fifth among high tuberculosis-burden countries, with over 686,000 TB case notifications in 2023. On World TB Day, we urge health policymakers to acknowledge that TB is not…
Can chatbots be therapists? Only if you want them to be
A manager at artificial intelligence firm OpenAI caused consternation recently by writing that she just had “a quite emotional, personal conversation” with her firm’s viral chatbot ChatGPT. “Never tried therapy…
The form and design of IMF programmes
For most of the IMF programmes since 1988, a coupling of short-term programme (Stand-by SBA) with a medium-term programme (Extended Fund Facility (EFF), variously named) has been the norm. The…
Larkana’s HIV outbreak
FOR several years, bonfires were lighting up in small towns and villages of Sindh; bonfires turned to bushfires, and bushfires are now rapidly engulfing the forest. Brave firefighters are battling…
Time to end TB
SHE sits before me, a frail woman of 28, pregnant for the fourth time. Her chest X-ray before treatment shows severe lung disease, and further testing reveals she harbours drug-resistant…
Healthy opportunity
NEXT week, the UN is convening three high-level meetings on universal health coverage (UHC), tuberculosis (TB) and pandemic prevention, preparedness and response (PPPR) at its 78th General Assembly session. These…
The war we don’t talk about
Pakistan is quietly confronting a crisis that has taken root across its schools, homes, and streets. Drug abuse, once a problem whispered about in hushed tones, has now escalated into…
A new urban agenda for Pakistan
As World Habitat Day 2025, which falls on October 6, calls for ‘Urban Solutions to Crisis’, Pakistan faces a stark choice. The day could not be more timely for us,…
Why we need to shift from survival to scale
This article links directly to my article, ‘The real contest of growth’, published in these pages on September 11, where I argued that America invents while China executes. The US…
Learning from the Qatar moment
Israel’s targeting of the Hamas leadership in Doha, while the most expensive and sophisticated arsenal in the Muslim world sat idle, was more than just a tactical or technological episode.…
