Sri Lanka polls and Pakistan
SRI Lanka is preparing to hold parliamentary elections on April 8 to elect 225 members to the country’s 14th parliament. The United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) led by current President…
Lankan meltdown lessons
THE spectre of the Sri Lankan situation has come to haunt many a developing nation facing serious economic challenges. After an economic meltdown, the South Asian country is now witnessing…
Lessons from Lanka
SRI Lanka figures very largely in the imagination of the people of South Asia. Not only is ‘Ceylon tea’ considered the best tea money can buy, a long line of…
Lanka’s existential moment
I HAPPENED to be in Colombo the day figurines of Lord Ganesha guzzled milk across the world, a spectacle that Hindu rationalists likened to a mass hysteria and believers saw…
The Lankan Example
Of late, I have been studying Sri Lanka’s war experience. The country has fascinated students of comparative politics like me as it defies virtually all conventional wisdom about peace and…
Pakistan’s Lankan affair
In a meeting with External Affairs Minister G.L. Peiris last week, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif expressed his admiration for Sri Lanka’s “unremitting endeavours for promoting economic independence, human dignity and…
The Bangladesh story
BANGLADESH is celebrating its 50th anniversary. Once called a “basket case” by Henry Kissinger, it is now considered as a role model. Bangladesh’s national income has multiplied 50 times, per…
Something’s gotta give
A FAMILY of four spent two months in the dark earlier this year in the small portion they rented. A husband, wife and two children, in Islamabad, spent these two…
Pregnancy, before the flood
SUCCESSIVE governments in Pakistan have not prioritised the basic needs of the people. This continued neglect over decades has resulted in a population that is growing unabated, unhealthy, uneducated and…
The rupee’s crash
THE spiral of inflation and devaluation the country is caught up in did not begin a few months ago. It began in 2021. The rupee had fluctuated in a band…
