Pakistan’s policy dilemma on April 9, 2018Pakistan has never developed a healthy symbiosis of politics and policy which could serve the public, due to the nature of our governance structures. According to economic development theorists, developing countries progress in accordance with four models. The is called the linear model, which is based on a linear progression of savings, investments, and foreign […]
Extremism: causes and remedies on April 1, 2018The time has come to take the bull of religious extremism by the horns. Mere placebo solutions and anodyne prescriptions have badly entangled us in a knotty morass of policy inaction that has helped extremists and their vile agenda thrive. Extremism as a sociological phenomenon has its roots in social, economic, and political inequities but […]
Fifth Generation Warfare in Pakistan on March 19, 2018Warfare has evolved far beyond the first generation; when it was all about set pieces of lines and columns of armed soldiers. Today, this favourite past time of mankind is waged by frustrated non-state warriors, directing their rage against visible symbols of oppression and opulence, drawing visceral as well as vicarious pleasure out of their […]
Subcontinent’s security dilemma on March 12, 2018‘Security dilemma’ is an international relations term that signifies a state of confused distrust between two states. This state of uncertainty and fear is brought about by the actions of a state, that in order to enhance its own security creates a threat for another state — forcing it to initiate military spending to match […]
A grand design? on March 4, 2018Pakistan and India have resumed their deadly minute of fire across the Line of Control (LoC), featuring a diurnal loss of precious civilian and military lives. 400 ceasefire violations this year by India betoken a recrudescence of belligerence that defies logic. Why would the Indian Army up the ante along the LoC when they know […]
Governance and polity on February 26, 2018Polity and governance are closely related. The civilizations that have overtaken the rest in social, economic, and technological development have demonstrated a very close symbiotic linkage between the two. Tailored to each society’s peculiar needs, political models are tweaked to respond to those needs, ensuring a mode of governance that promotes public welfare, social justice, […]
Countering violent terrorism on February 12, 2018Rudyard Kipling obviously knew a thing or two about the deadly scourge of terrorism stalking our western frontier. The same terrorism that exacted a gut wrenching toll on the young lives out on a mission to tame the refractory tribes whose truculence defies time. The above lines that captured the poignancy of the British human […]
Death of renewable energy in Pakistan on January 29, 2018The government’s recent policy changes on renewable energy development have dealt a grievous blow to a sector that had promised a new dawn of clean and cheap power for an energy starved Pakistan. While the rest of the world gallops ahead embracing wind and solar energy, our energy mandarins have thought otherwise. While the advanced […]
Death wish on January 22, 2018The above quote sums up the queer combination of pathos and ennui surrounding an average Pakistani’s life in a country that was supposed to act as the guarantor of their basic human security needs, having been freed from the yoke of colonial exploitation and religious particularism. All that was promised in that El Dorado of […]
Soft balancing on January 15, 2018Pakistan has been a classic victim of a geopolitical tussle gnawing at its vitals since the country’s inception. A geographical curse has defined our inter-state interaction and global engagement. Like the resource curse of the diamond rich African countries Pakistan’s ‘geography curse’ has kept it tethered to a security centred politico-economic model at the cost […]