Ali Malik

This week I was all set to write on the recent local bodies’ elections and their implications on the future politics of Pakistan. However, in the aftermath of the Paris attack and San Bernardino mass shooting incident, the world is changing in a direction much feared at a much faster pace. And that has forced […]

The age-old question of whether the state should run businesses or not may be ready to hit us with renewed vigour. Even in the debate on privatisation of state enterprises, the ghosts of the 1970s’ nationalisation are invoked here and there. The pro-business group says that the nationalisation of the 1970s was an utter disaster […]

The downing of a Russian aircraft by Turkish forces has made imminent the near inevitability of the Syrian conflict turning into a global one. This conflict, right from the very beginning, was ripe for global conflict for a multitude of reasons. For one, just when Russia was not happy with overtures in Libya, Syria falls […]

A bunch of terrorists who belonged to the organisation that one’s own security and intelligence service helped raise held a city hostage killing hundreds of innocent people, and terrorised the whole world. That was 9/11 and this is Paris. And just when what happened in Paris should not be deemed unexpected, it opens a window […]

The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) issued a press release following the corps commander’s meeting calling for improvement in governance. Barring indifference, one could take two approaches to this statement, one to hail it as a much needed wakeup call by a powerful institution of the country and the other to highlight that the statement was […]

In the rural areas of Punjab, it is considered immodest for a wife to call her husband by name. So, she uses metaphors like munnay de abba (father of the little one) etc. With time, such useless old traditions are fading away even in the heartland of Punjab but looking at a few directives coming […]

Prime Minister (PM) Nawaz Sharif is on a working visit to Washington DC, which everyone is claiming to be a critical visit with regards to the Pak-US relationship, a relationship that has seen many seesaws since the end of the Cold War. It is now said to be heading towards another period of chill. This […]

Withholding tax on banking transactions remains among the key issues facing the present government. Traders across the country have threatened agitation if the decision is not reversed by the government. There is evidence to suggest that the prime reason for NA-122 becoming a tough election for the ruling party was the aforementioned tax. The broader […]

The recent auction (half auction to be precise) of Euro bonds by Pakistan is indicative of the vulnerabilities of the economy managed by the current Nawaz regime and its team of ‘experienced’ economic czars. That the auction for 10-year bonds was undersold by 50 percent at an astronomical interest rate of 8.25 percent itself says […]

A lot is happening in the region around us, which has serious implications for us as well as the globe. The chaos started with the fall of the Saddam regime in Iraq and the US’s inability to deal with its aftermath through a flimsy military and non-existent political plan. After Obama announced his ‘cut and […]