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Making Foreign Policy

Making foreign policy

The national security adviser has arrived in India to the chagrin of the external affairs ministry. First came Brajesh Mishra in 1988 who also doubled as principal secretary to the…

Policy-making

Policy-making

The purpose of this paper is to create an awareness about policy-making process and pointing out loopholes of the mechanism, which may lead to greater inequalities in the society. Public…

Policymaking With Blindfolds

Policymaking with blindfolds

Earlier this year officials at the federal Ministry of Finance and the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) had a disagreement. The disagreement was due to a rebasing (changing the base…

Foreign policy adrift

CHARACTERISED by drift, Pakistan’s foreign policy appears to be rudderless. It has neither clarity nor coherence to meet complex regional and international challenges or respond to fast-moving global developments. Lacking…

Making hay of wheat

HOW do two working-class village women, meeting for the first time, learn about each other’s state of well-being? Pardon my eavesdropping, but while travelling in rural Punjab in a cramped…

Foreign policy choices

DESPITE the high quality of its diplomats, Pakistan’s diplomacy has fallen on hard times. The country has long been in a state of crisis. And a troubled domestic front undermines…

Realignment of security policy

THE state institutions made a mistake by deciding to initiate peace talks with the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan. The talks were doomed from the start. They allowed the TTP to regain their lost…

Policy perspective

AFTER vacillating for five years, Sindh has finally nailed a water policy. The document needs some editorial brushwork but is otherwise fairly comprehensive. The policy has tried to encapsulate the…

Making sand castles

WHY have some elements had an odd addiction to making shaky political sand castles that soon collapse? Free polls rejuvenate the political process. Incumbents defend their track record; opponents propose…

Who should make policy?

‘INCREMENTAL’ budgeting is generally practised by the government of Pakistan. That means that the Ministry of Finance’s recurrent budgets are not based on costing the latest development plans but, in…