Hollow Jingoism on July 27, 2024Leopards never change their spots. It was widely assumed that an extraordinarily humbling election performance would prompt Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to step back from his usual hatred-laced rhetoric and for a change, give regional peace a chance. However, the belligerent remarks made in Ladakh, where he accused Pakistan of using terrorism as a […]
Sad Indicators on July 27, 2024Out of the world’s 199 passports, Pakistan, for the fourth year in a row, saw its standing among the weakest in the world, slated alongside war-ravaged countries like Yemen. Green passport performed better than just three countries–Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan–whose rampant insecurity, little state structure and an overall failing finance and infrastructure are secret to […]
Dirty Politics 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? 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 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 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 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 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 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… 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, […]