Middle East conundrum
I has never been easy to navigate the labyrinth of the Middle East’s ever-changing politics, but it is becoming even more challenging with the growing confusion over shifting alliances. The…
Admission days
We are a nation that spends barely 2pc of the Gross National Product (GNP) on education, a society where a group of educationalists wrap up a three-day seminar in one…
A road to nowhere
The PML-N and the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) have finally agreed to form a judicial commission to probe the 2013 elections and determine three things: were they conducted impartially, fairly and…
Unable to compete
Recent developments have laid bare the perennial issue of the poor global competitiveness of our productive-agriculture and industry sectors. The high international price of oil in particular and commodities in…
And the women prisoners sang
“By then, I had befriended all the women from the so-called criminal cell,” Tahira Mazhar Ali smiled, her tone toggling between impishness and conspiracy. She was sharing with me one…
Social protection
The term disability traverses an entire range of health problems ranging from infirmity due to Alzheimer’s, diabetes, cancer, arthritis and old age to congenital diseases, malnutrition, accidents, terrorism, warfare, and…
Jobs & courts
‘Jobs for the boys’ is one of the more engaging films in the delightful TV serial Yes, Minister. It shows the civil servant, Sir Humphrey Appleby, negotiating over lunch with…
Circle of death
The extraordinary attempt earlier this month by 47 United States senators to sabotage one of their nation’s most significant diplomatic initiatives served as a reminder that some of the Obama…
Electoral choices
Consider two recent electoral results from India: Of the total seats contested, the BJP won 52pc in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections and 4pc in the 2015 Delhi state elections.…
America’s Afghan wars
There is no shortage of books and literature detailing the failure of the Western forces in defeating the Taliban insurgency that had started to spread by 2003 marking the beginning…
