Reclaiming Pakistan
I do not know whether we are in a state of a soft coup or not but I know one thing: the army and the government seem to be working…
Monetising rights
The drought in the land of the Bhuttos has claimed the lives of 275 children in 11 months, according to an official list prepared by the district administration. The blasphemy…
Bending over backwards in Kathmandu?
If there had been a Saarc summit five months ago, the prospects of a meeting between Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and India’s rockstar leader, Prime Minister Narendra Modi Nawaz Sharif would…
Viewpoint: The heaviest coffins to carry
This time the Taliban hit where it hurts the most. They have claimed credit for the massacre of 132 schoolchildren in Peshawar's Army Public School along with nine teachers. Another…
Fighting the Islamic State
PRESIDENT Obama announced a “strategy” to “degrade and destroy” the Islamic State (formerly, the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham) on Sept 10. The announcement came scarcely two weeks after…
Season of uncertainty
With Afghanistan entering a more uncertain phase, the election crisis there meant that the recent Nato summit, already distracted by other geostrategic concerns, did little more than voice the alliance’s…
The real dialogue we need
Borrowing the expression from the outstanding writer of mystery fiction and detective stories in Urdu, Ibn-e-Safi, a dear friend and an ardent supporter of Imran Khan asked me the other…
China’s elite tighten their belts as crackdown bites
China's big spenders are reining in overt shows of wealth, shelving shopping trips in Hong Kong and Macau gambling sprees in the face of the Communist Party's anti-corruption and frugality…
Hindering development
Pakistan's budget is never clear on where we should be going and what strategies should be employed for that purpose. Have look at the current budget and one will see…
IMF and FBR
International Monetary Fund (IMF), in its Third Review under the 1Extended Arrangement for Pakistan, has noted significant shortfall in revenue measures from the original programme objectives. The IMF2 says that…
