Karzai and Afghan reality
President Karzai’s visit to Islamabad was intended primarily to seek Pakistan’s cooperation in getting the Afghan peace talks back on track but with a difference. The resistance must agree to…
LoC under spotlight
During January and February this year, skirmishes between the border security forces of India and Pakistan on the Line of Control (LoC) in Kashmir resulted cost the lives of six…
Sharif in Wonderland
It may have not been difficult for Nawaz Sharif to reclaim the top position. But he certainly does not appear comfortable there. His morose demeanour portrays a man in deep…
A nation’s debt
The prime minister, in his address to the nation, expressed his concern about the rising debt of the country. His concern was right because high and rising debt constitutes a…
Rollback of the Egyptian revolution
Egyptian military has successfully reversed the change the 2011 pro-democracy events brought in the country. The first ever democratically-elected president of the country, Mohammad Morsi, is in prison, while more…
Capital suggestion…Post-2014
The US is pulling out of Afghanistan. Its adversaries, the Taliban, are jubilant. After all, they have beaten back another superpower. In order to understand the conflict in Afghanistan one…
Reflections on prior actions
Pakistan and the IMF have reached a staff level agreement for a $5.3 billion bailout programme, which is likely to be presented to the executive board of the IMF in…
Politics of energy
The newly-elected PML (N) government released its energy policy amidst much fanfare. Ignored by the media was the last sentence of the second paragraph, "this document does not elaborate on…
Fertiliser the ‘goldmine’
Pakistan is an agricultural country with approximately 70 percent of its population living in the villages. The major source of their livelihood is agriculture. Agriculture employed 66 percent of the…
Failings of the State Bank
All over the world, central banks perform three main functions. First, they formulate and conduct monetary policy with the objective of keeping monetary expansion and inflation under control, and channelling…
