Safiya Aftab

The Planning Commission is blowing hot and cold over the daily Dawn’s expose on the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). The long-term plan, whose details have been revealed in the DAWN report, was apparently prepared by China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) — equivalent to our Planning Commission — and the China Development Bank. […]

The latest buzz in the development sector is on the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which have succeeded the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). As opposed to eight MDGs, which were mostly concerned with socio-economic development, there are 17 SDGs which cover practically everything from the economy to social development, human rights and governance. The SDGs […]

The Minister for Planning just announced that Pakistan has refused a loan from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for the Karachi-Peshawar Railway line which is estimated to cost $8 billion. The ADB was to provide $3.5 billion of the total amount. Now, China will fund the entire foreign component of the project. Single sourcing makes […]

The recent harrowing incident in Mardan where a student was lynched over allegations of blasphemy has once again triggered bouts of soul searching in Pakistan. There is no one explanation for the obvious increase in bigotry in Pakistani society, but amidst all the pronouncements of “what is happening to us” it may perhaps be insightful […]

A think tank in Lahore, IDEAS, has recently published a report on political attitudes, and in doing so, effectively kicked off what could be a year’s worth of constituency analysis, as Pakistan awaits its next general election. The report has been extensively discussed in the press. That its key findings are generally favourable to the […]

Planning is a provincial function, and unless a provincial government knows how the economy is structured, it cannot make long-term decisions On a recent trip to Karachi from Islamabad, some of us decided to go out on a sojourn in search of street food. In one hour, we did a round of three restaurants (taking […]

The last time the Government of Pakistan took family planning seriously was during the period of the Third Plan in the 1960s. The dawn of democracy in the country also heralded in an era where pacifying a range of stakeholders, including those at the far right of the spectrum, became de rigueur. The government began […]

The population census has finally begun in Pakistan, nine years overdue, and nineteen years after the last census. As is always the case, it is a highly contentious exercise, with the country’s ethnic, religious and sectarian minorities expressing fears about under-representation, and marginalized groups such as people with disabilities and transgender persons once again in […]