Dirty Politics By: Daily Times on July 26, 2024In a befitting Dickensian cliche, women in Pakistan are no strangers to ugly discourse and the self-explanatory need to keep their guard up at all times: walking on eggshells and praying to divine providence for one more “safe” day. The risk of being dragged through the mire increases exponentially if you are a public personality. […]
More Chaos? By: Daily Times on July 26, 2024Since the ECP had no choice but to follow a crystal-clear directive from the apex court on the issue of reserved seats, it sidelined its earlier party ticket reservations and notified 39 MNAs, who had declared themselves PTI lawmakers in the nomination papers, on Wednesday. As for the remaining 41, the court has already given […]
Debt restructuring By: Daily Times on July 25, 2024The Shehbaz Sharif government has recently taken difficult and unpopular decisions in the name of reviving the economy, but they seem a futile service due to increasing political pressure. Instead of putting the house in order, the government is trying to restructure billions of dollars of loans taken from friendly countries. The International Monetary Fund […]
Delayed measures By: Daily Times on July 25, 2024When it rains, we start discussing the problems created during the rainy season. This has been persistent for decades and is of no use. Preventing these issues requires serious and urgent attention, before the rainy season. Consider this: A high-level meeting held at the President’s House in Islamabad discussed measures to protect Karachi from urban […]
Unexplainable Targets By: Daily Times on July 24, 2024There’s nothing wrong with aiming high. So when Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif wishes the Export Development Board to take the country’s exports to $60 billion, he appears to be counting on recent flickers of hope from international credit ratings that very optimistically believed in the ongoing year to raise Pakistan’s economic growth to 3.2 percent. […]
Hope on Horizon By: Daily Times on July 24, 2024The year 2024 has been marked as a crucial turning point in the battle against AIDS by the United Nations. With recent reports showing a decline in HIV rates among young people (a drop of 40000 in one year and significantly from the 2.1 million deaths witnessed in 2004), there is hope on the horizon. […]
Mutual Responsibility By: Daily Times on July 23, 2024Ever since the Sharif administration announced Operation Azm-i-Istehkam, unanswered and intriguing questions abound among the locals, especially those who were hit the hardest during previous military campaigns. Monday’s elaborate presser by DG ISPR could best be described as the armed forces’ attempt to explain their position on the gravity of the challenges awaiting Pakistan and […]
After Biden… By: Daily Times on July 23, 2024Joe Biden is out of the biggest-ever race less than four months before America would set out to vote for its next president. After battling pressure from increasingly sceptical Democrats, especially in the wake of a disastrous first one-on-one debate against Republican candidate Donald Trump for weeks, President Bident very abruptly abandoned his reelection bid, […]
Violating Norms By: Daily Times on July 22, 2024A large crowd of angry Afghan nationals pelting stones, pulling down Pakistan’s flag and vandalising the property of its consulate in Frankfurt on Sunday bore a harrowing resemblance to a 2003 ransacking of the country’s embassy in Kabul. Both episodes saw mobs of protestors start as peaceful demonstrations but quickly undermine diplomatic norms and permission […]
‘Unconditional Apology’ By: Daily Times on July 22, 2024With a heated war of words between Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur and Governor Faisal Karim Kundi refusing to ebb away, the downward spiral had become an inevitable reality. After the endless rounds of verbal assaults, during which Mr Kundi, on more than one occasion, tried to bury the hatchet by reminding the […]