Democratizing Pakistan’s foreign policy on July 28, 2019It has been one year since Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf has been in power. It’s premature to judge PTI based upon its promises of Naya Pakistan but still PTI government can’t escape from genuine flak for the economic policies which they did not take so seriously at the start and later on had to give in to […]
Countering extremism via reclaiming academic freedom on April 1, 2019Pakistan’s fight against extremism can be considered almost tangibly over but there is a lot to do with respect to its intangible aspects. Keeping in view the essence of extremism which preaches no space for something considered to be outside the perceived norm, there are a lot of reflections one can come across in a […]
Pak-US relations and Afghanistan conundrum on December 17, 2018Pak-US relations have been back on track after a long spell of acrimony coming in the wake of President Trump’s tweets at the start of the year in which he seemed nullifying Pakistan so far efforts in the war against terrorism and which prompted the incumbent government to deliver a message unequivocally with all stakeholders […]
Women’s role in a gender inclusive society on December 6, 2018According to latest research entitled “Population and fertility by age and sex for 195 countries and territories, 1950-2017: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 201”carried out by University of Washington and published in The Lancet, some 33comparatively well developed countries in Central Europe, Eastern Europe and Western Europe (e.g. Cyprus, Portugal, […]
Role of opposition in democracy on September 13, 2018Finally, Pakistan is under the stewardship of those who clamoured for ‘Naya Pakistan’. Time will tell whether it was all rhetoric or seeds for real change had been sown. At this moment in time, the start is not that disappointing- though there have been a few allegations in the media against delinquency on part of […]
PTI’s turn to give back to KP on August 7, 2018One of the unusual aspects of the 2018 elections was Khyber Pakhthunkhwa (KP) election results. The province has never given any party a second chance in any general elections, however, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) proved to be an exception. This speaks a lot about the party’s performance.PTI now has enough seats to make a provincial […]
Analysing Malala’s homecoming on April 10, 2018Recently Nobel Laureate Malala Yousafzai visited Pakistan after spending five years abroad. Her homecoming received a mixed response, which has been testified to by popular feedback on social media. Some considered her a beacon of change and advocated that she was an admirable person for promoting women’s empowerment and education in Pakistan. The major chunk, […]
Can Pakistani democracy survive? on April 7, 2018The beauty of democracy lies in the fact that ideally, it is supposed to be accommodating to diversity and adaptive to changing times. This is what makes it worth following as a model of governance across the globe. Realistically however, implementing an ideal democracy is not as easy as holding general elections every few years. […]
Stewarding Pakistan’s demographic dividend on March 6, 2018At present, the youth constitute the majority of this country’s population. According to rough estimates, more than 60 percent of Pakistan’s current population is home to youth lot. This demographic dividend brings Pakistan knocking at the door of opportunity and risk simultaneously. If the potential of the youth is tapped properly, it could begin to […]
LLF 2018: more than a festival on February 28, 2018Lahore Literary Festival (LLF) 2018 was held last weekend at Alhamra Arts Centre, Mall Road, Lahore. Discussion sessions over a wide range of topics had been arranged for the public at large and to which people responded enthusiastically through their attendance and participation. Like every year, since it has started, I visited the festival as […]