RekoDiq case: who played havoc? on July 26, 2019Starved for funds to survive the economic pressure, Pakistan government was jolted with a whopping penalty of $5.97 billion by International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) on 12 July 2019 in the ReqoDiq mining case. The amount of the fine is just equal to the recently approved IMF loan package for Pakistan for […]
Gambling on peace in Afghanistan on July 16, 2019Recent attacks in the war-raged Afghanistan by the Taliban could reflect about the possible projection of security and peace situation in the country after the withdrawal of the US troops. The power fragmentation is obvious and clear. The key elements in the Afghanistan peace process know that no stakeholder would compromise for the less even […]
On a roadmap for Kashmir on June 23, 2019Seventy two years on, the fate of Indian-occupied Kashmir (IOK) is still hanging in balance. We hardly see any significant progress towards the right of self-determination for the natives of the Indian-occupied Kashmir over the decades despite the UN resolutions were passed long back in 1948 and 1949. Repeated dialogues between both sides of Kashmir […]
It’s not so civilian on June 8, 2019Selected or elected prime minister, does it make any difference if the policies and agendas are dictated and directed by those who are not supposed to do it? If we review Pakistan’s history of “civil regimes” that is actually half of the total while the other half has been the total military dictatorial regimes. Unfortunately, […]
Hypocritical regulations on plastic bags on May 28, 2019Good and bad things can go together. This is what proves the new proposed legislation by the Ministry of Climate Change (MoCC) that is titled as “Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency [Pak-EPA] Ban on (Manufacturing, Import, Sale, Purchase, Storage and Usage) Polythene Bags Regulations, 2019”. The good part of the proposed legislation, as described in its […]
A new era begins in Japan on May 24, 2019May 1, 2019 was a usual day of political and economic turmoil in Pakistan while imperial transition took place in Japan. Widely reported in the international media, most of the Pakistani media remained ignorant about the Japanese royal ceremony. Wasn’t it strange that we remained silent on an extremely significant day in the history of […]
Rewrapping green initiatives on May 16, 2019Launched in the mid of October last year, the present government’s very important initiative Clean and Green Pakistan is still starving for funds. Nothing much seen on ground during the eight months except loud claims, official statements and a couple of memoranda of understanding (MOUs) with the corporate sector. Cleverly, these organisations rewrapped their on-going […]
Learning from an African island on May 9, 2019Republic of Mauritius is an island in the Indian Ocean. Located about 2,000 kilometres off the southeast coast of the African continent, the country had been a colony of Dutch, French and Britain before to get independence on March 12, 1968. A thinly populated country is facing the aging challenge while it also fears to […]
BRF 2019: what next for the world? on May 1, 2019The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) gained more confidence of the world leaders, as reported, that more than three dozen of Heads of the States were among a little over 5000 attendees of the Belt and Road Forum (BRF) from 150 countries. After the UN General Assembly session, the BRF could be termed as the […]
Every citizen needs to take ‘The Earth Care Pledge’ on April 25, 2019We don’t see any visible policy advocacy or awareness-raising effort or citizens’ engagement in Pakistan on the Earth Day by those who are responsible to do it either from the government or the nongovernment. The concerned departments in the federal capital and in the provinces found sleeping as usual though their mandate includes public engagement […]