The power albatross
In April 2008 as the world oil prices crossed the $140 per bbl mark the oil-based high priced Independent Power Producer (IPP) model came home to roost. The model protected…
Missing the point
The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) has generated competing claims among provinces on where the corridor should lie, as though counting the trucks plying on it is what really matters. This…
Dollar and oil impact
Pakistan’s economy has routinely oscillated between periods of relative stability and busts brought about by external payments crises. Failure of successive governments to push through structural reforms when the economy…
Palestinians elect new ‘president’ in reality show
The sound of gunshots and explosions is heard the moment the new "president" steps onto the platform to address a crowd in the West Bank. His guards quickly scramble to…
Challenging the received wisdom – II
That our economic managers have been barking up the wrong tree in demonising inflation is obvious...a fact that has been staring us in the face for decades. To drive home…
The world according to Trump
It has been called the greatest political upset in American political history. How did the least qualified candidate in the history of US politics beat a qualified candidate whom virtually…
Sea sentinels
Winston Churchill had once conceded that “the only thing that ever frightened me was the U Boat peril”. He was alluding to the peril of the German submarine arm prowling…
Pak-US relations in the Trump era
The most important single event in the Pakistan-US relationship in the last decade was the November 26, 2011 slaughter of over two dozen Pakistani soldiers on the border with Afghanistan…
How not to fight terror
Yet another attack in the heart of Europe and yet another mad rush to tie it to Islam and its followers. The Berlin truck attack this week on a Christmas…
Too late, yet welcome
Is Pakistan experiencing a whiff of educational opening up and acknowledgement of its soft power potential? Or is it too naive or early to say so: after all, one swallow…
