INSTC should be active in tandem with BRI
In today’s interconnected world and the new global order, trade corridors are essential highways of the global economy and strategic tools for geopolitical and geo-strategic influence. Global trade is being…
The real contest of growth
China’s modern rise began with Deng Xiaoping’s reforms after 1978. A handful of pragmatic changes turned an inward, centrally planned economy into an export superpower. Beijing created Special Economic Zones…
Why Kalabagh Dam is not an option
For decades, the Kalabagh Dam has been pitched as the silver bullet to Pakistan’s water and power challenges. By the numbers, it promises thousands of megawatts of hydropower and millions…
New monsoon reality
IN the mountains of South Asia, the monsoon once arrived like a marching band — broad, rhythmic and predictable. Today, however, it strikes with precision, dropping torrents of water on…
Can the SCO rewrite the rules?
In an era when the world seems to be drifting back into blocs and rivalries reminiscent of the cold war, China’s decision to host the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit…
How safe is ‘safe city’?
Lahore, winter morning. The Safe City control room hums under the fluorescent lights, a wall of screens showing every artery of the city in quiet detail. Faces flicker past in…
Rewriting the social contract
In Pakistan’s rural heartlands, a silent revolution is underway. For more than a century, the Indus Basin canal network, designed under British colonial rule, dictated the rhythm of agriculture. The…
Hiroshima horrors
THERE were several sources of angst in Japan back in June, when Donald Trump likened the massive US attack on Iranian nuclear facilities to the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and…
Careem’s exit from ride-hailing market
In June 2025 Careem, the Dubai-based ride-hailing pioneer (now part of Uber), announced it would suspend its Pakistan operations on July 18 after nearly a decade in business. In a…
Let human rights be
Civil society organisations (CSOs) in Pakistan are currently enduring one of the most challenging periods in the country’s history. Any CSO that advocates for human rights or raises awareness about…
