Why India’s new FDI rules can’t bother Chinese investments on May 12, 2020After the coronavirus pandemic sent stocks tumbling and raised fears of “opportunistic takeovers” by Chinese companies, New Delhi entertained key revisions in its foreign direct investment rules for neighbouring countries. A notification circulated by the trade ministry last month stated that “the Government of India has reviewed the extant Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) policy for […]
Foreign speculations of CPEC on January 4, 2020Washington’s critique of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor is becoming a bit predictable. Alice Wells, top U.S. diplomat for South Asia, reiterated the Trump leadership’s long-term position on CPEC last month: aid is an illusion, Pakistan is headed for a debt trap, and Beijing will consolidate all profits. Interestingly, what began as a warning quickly […]
Why the US criticism of CPEC is mere speculation? on December 10, 2019Washington’s critique of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is becoming a bit predictable. Alice Wells, the top US diplomat for South Asia, reiterated the Trump leadership’s long-term position on CPEC last month. She claimed that aid was an illusion, Pakistan was headed for a debt trap, and Beijing would consolidate all profits. Interestingly, what […]
Re-assessing Pak-US centrality to South Asia on November 6, 2019For Pakistan and the U.S., it has been a year of limited bilateral successes, widening counterterrorism perceptions, and frequent economic threats. Experts in both Islamabad and Washington have begun to question whether the centrality of Pak-U.S. ties to South Asia is withering. Some deem it a fresh start, while others construe rhetoric as a diplomatic […]
Getting Kashmir right on August 24, 2019Long before Prime Minister Narendra Modi cast a colonizing gaze on Kashmir’s freedom, his critics were convinced what his politics was all about: an exercise insocial-religious polarization. This assumed that any surge in Hindu nationalism was designed to facilitate domestic divide and rule. But the dynamics today are much different. Notions of a “divided” India […]
Understanding the Pak-US view of peace in Afghanistan on August 1, 2019Afghanistan occupies a central place in Pak-US relations. It became the basis for strained bilateral ties in 2018, when Washington blamed Islamabad for going soft on cross-border terror groups. Today, growing tensions in the region have compelled both parties to come together in search for a common-ground. Taliban’s pursuit for greater political control has pushed […]
Jacinda Ardern lives up to her talk on March 26, 2019Last week’s Christchurch shooting staged an assault on everything New Zealand stood for: equality, religious freedom, and its profound embrace of thousands of immigrants. On the other hand, it took a nation like New Zealand to stand up to such a calamity and show the world what a multipronged approach to counterterrorism should look like:legislative, […]
Is a single-standard curriculum the answer? on January 25, 2019Earlier this month, Pakistan’s education minister announced a Single National Certification System to address the country’s widening quality gap (between public and private schools), and decreasing literacy levels. It proposes a centralized curriculum as an instrument of academic unity – a move that is likely to give the federal government a central role in framing […]
Dealing with Pakistan’s far-right on October 11, 2018These past six-weeks have left the nation with plenty to consider. Despite their limited numerical strength and firm sectarian roots, Pakistan’s far right — led by Tehreek e Labbaik (TLP) – continues to stake its claim to key policy matters. From deciding who sits on the nation’s Economic Council, to dictating the fate of Pak-Dutch […]
What to expect from 2018 general elections on July 13, 2018On July 25, Pakistan will vote a new democratic government into power. The question is, will that choice come with a new direction? A country nearly 220 million-strong looks for its answers in three key parties: Pakistan Muslim League — Nawaz (PML_N), Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) — each with a distinct […]