After 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
Washington’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?
Washington’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
For 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
Long 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
Afghanistan 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
Last 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?
Earlier 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
These 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 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 […]