‘Old Pakistan’, ‘New Pakistan’ The way forward
Sixty-eight years into our existence as an independent country we are beset with numerous crisis. The latest is the warning by IRSA that the nation is on the verge of…
The ballistic missile threat
In the second nuclear age, we have entered a new and dangerous phase of unchecked proliferation in which the missile competition between the major regional powers is threatening to disrupt…
A case for Gandhara
Growing up in Lahore I wondered about the gap in my history textbook between the end of Indus Valley civilisation circa 1500 BC and the invasion of Sindh by Mohammad…
Pakistan as a regional manufacturing hub?
Alongside are the excerpts from the key-note address that the writer delivered at Lahore School of Economics last month. Manufacturing's share in GDP increased from about 8 percent in 1950 to…
Rights of victims of bombing
WHILE the jury is still out on the desirability and impact of US drone attacks in Pakistan’s tribal areas the argument that innocent civilians’ deaths in these strikes constitute inevitable…
Tea over, time to smell the coffee
India’s middle classes are mutating and blame it on the 14-year-old market economy. The effect is telling. Where they were enlightened citizens of the world, they are turning into frogs…
Can quake-hit Haiti manufacture itself a hi-tech future?
The phrase is used so often it has become a cliche - Haiti is the poorest country in the Americas - but even so it fails to capture the stark…
After turbulent 2014, next year may be no calmer
From financial crisis in Russia to cyber warfare with North Korea, 2014 has generated new flashpoints right into its final days, setting 2015 up to be just as turbulent. Almost…
Paleo governance
Every year a new diet becomes popular. One year it’s the Mediterranean diet. The next year it’s the Atkin’s diet. Then it’s the cabbage soup diet followed by people swearing…
A brave new book
Growing up in small town India, my earliest introduction to the English language and fiction were ‘cowboy’ novels of Oliver Strange. For someone who grew up in crowded, downtown mohallas,…
