Indo-China relations
For quite some time, the Chinese top leadership seems to have made it a point – as much as is possible – to visit India and Pakistan back-to-back. In 2006,…
Watch out, Mian Sahib
Mian Nawaz Sharif, who could not finish his stipulated term as prime minister twice before, has taken oath of office as PM again. Acquiring a ‘heavy mandate’ in his 1997…
Circular debt and the economic eco-system
Reading a recent leader story in this paper about the government's intention to issue $5 billion worth of T-Bills/PIB's in lieu of the circular debt has prompted me to write…
The five men in charge
There are five men who will call the shots for some time to come in the political arena of Pakistan. They will lead decision-making on key issues and oversee the…
Clearing the minefield
Pakistan’s socio-economic problems have assumed cancerous dimensions – and the road to recovery is now a minefield. Clearing the minefield, rather than skirting it like past governments, is the only…
Revival lessons
The PML-N has made a number of pronouncements since the elections on how it intends to revive the economy. In conjunction with its stated policy objectives from the election manifesto,…
Election Outlook-XVIII: Equal distribution of misery
The equal distribution of electricity loadshedding across Pakistan has brought to one's mind Winston Churchill's famous words that 'the inherent virtue of socialism is its equal distribution of misery', although…
Managing the natural gas crisis
The dual menace of power and gas shortage is a serious issue that has caused much damage to the national economy and is likely to damage more, if the right…
What lies ahead
An imperfect electoral exercise copied from western models, our democracy has very little relevance to the local environment or the ‘genius of the people’. The ‘first-past-the-post-system’ does not ascertain the…
Power failures
Ask around why we’re in a power crisis, and you’ll hear three different narratives. One narrative says this is all an institutional issue. This camp believes that the crisis grows…
