Remedy begins at home
During his nine-year rule, Gen (r) Musharraf almost found a place for himself in the Guinness Book of World Records as a Marco Polo head of state. Had he not…
Victory for the condemned
Three sets of people must be jubilant following Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s government’s decision to continue with the moratorium on the death penalty. First and foremost; all the death-row prisoners…
Flawed presumption
They met, shook hands and inquired about one another’s health in their shared mother tongue. But they could not tell the people of their needlessly estranged countries what they have…
The price of hyper-intervention
The Syrian crisis dominated debate at an international conference last week in Stockholm that reviewed a range of global strategic issues. Organised by the London-based Institute of Strategic Studies, the…
View point: Talking to the Taliban
Last Sunday's Taliban attack in Upper Dir in which the GOC Swat and Malakand division, a Lieutenant Colonel and a non-commissioned officer were killed in the wake of a formal…
Vibrant Chengdu
Chairman Mao Zedong looks down benignly at the crowds from his perch in Tianfu Square in Chengdu, one arm raised in friendly salutation, an avuncular smile on his face. I…
Nawaz Sharif goes to New York
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif travels to New York this week. He will not be alone in making this annual autumn pilgrimage of heads of state to the United Nations. Amongst…
Financial inclusion
One glaring inequity, among many, in Pakistan’s socio-economic framework is the unequal access to financial services. While, overall, Pakistan has a fairly well-developed and relatively robust formal financial sector, a…
The latest APC: how different is it?
Let me begin by stating that I am a die-hard optimist, I always see the glass as half full. This time around my optimism is based on certain decisions and…
Moment of opportunity
In setting his priorities at the outset of his tenure Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif emphasized that the economy and energy crisis would receive his urgent attention, as would the removal…
