Over the skies of the Middle East and along its critical shipping lanes, a conflict is unfolding that few can see, yet many feel its reverberations. There are no explosions on the front pages, no armoured columns advancing through deserts, yet the consequences ripple across aviation, trade, and global security. This is a war over […]
Iran War and the Changing Economics of Military Power
For more than three decades, the military supremacy of the United States has been one of the central pillars of the international system. From the end of the Cold War onward, American technological dominance appeared so overwhelming that many strategists assumed large-scale challenges to it would be prohibitively costly for potential rivals. The conflict involving […]
Austerity, Energy Shocks: Pakistan’s Response and the Limits of Symbolism
As geopolitical tensions once again ripple through global energy markets, oil prices and supply routes have returned to the centre of global economic risk. Even relatively small disruptions in energy supply chains can trigger price spikes that reverberate across economies dependent on imported fuel. For countries like Pakistan, which rely heavily on external energy supplies, […]
Caught in the Crossfire
For Islamabad, the intensifying conflict involving Iran, the United States, and Israel has opened a new chapter of economic uncertainty and geopolitical tension – one that could reshape the country’s trajectory for years. Surging oil prices, disrupted trade routes, and potential declines in remittances are already straining Pakistan’s fragile recovery. Yet analysts suggest that, if […]
The Story of the Stock Market
Modern finance did not begin in skyscrapers. It began along the canals of the Dutch Republic, when the Amsterdam Stock Exchange opened in 1602 to trade shares of the Dutch East India Company. That innovation altered economic history. For the first time, permanent shares in a multinational enterprise were offered to the public, allowing investors […]
Political Economy of Digital Payments in Pakistan
Pakistan has spent more than Rs. 3.5 billion to build the infrastructure for QR-based digital payments, yet fewer than 5 per cent of citizens have ever used a digital method to pay a merchant, according to industry estimates. On paper, the country possesses the essential rails. The instant payment system launched by the State Bank […]
State-Owned Enterprises and the Cost of a Failing Economic Model
The crisis of State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) in Pakistan has moved far beyond the realm of technical inefficiency and entered the territory of structural economic failure. According to the Ministry of Finance’s Annual SOE Performance Review and recent IMF staff reports, Pakistan’s SOEs generated losses of Rs 833 billion in FY 2024-25, while their combined profits […]
The Global Failure to Protect Children
Across the world, from the streets of northern England to the private islands of the United States, from the crowded cities of South Asia to the disciplined societies of East Asia, one uncomfortable truth unites every system and every culture: child sexual exploitation is not confined to any race, religion, or geography. It follows power […]
Police Reform in Pakistan
In January 2019, on a Pakistani highway near Sahiwal, three children watched their parents and sister die at the hands of the state. The police officers who pulled the trigger believed they were stopping criminals. They were wrong. The parents were innocent, the identification mistaken, the encounter irreversible. What those children witnessed was not merely […]
Pakistan’s Future Lies in Hope, Inclusion, and the Voices of Its Youth
Pakistan’s youth are speaking in a tone that is often dismissed as frustration or defiance. But this is not mere noise; it is the natural response of a generation confronting the widening gap between state policies and everyday reality. Young Pakistanis want to engage with the world, compete, and build their futures at home. Yet […]