Syed Wajahat Ali

After extensive visits, and interaction with local miners, landowners, and mining officials, the study finds that the mining potential in Chitral is mind-blowing. Starting from Arandu Valley right up to Wakhan Corridor on the left bank of river Chitral and from Darosh Valley straight up to Boni, Mastuj, and Shandur on the right bank of […]

Amid all heavy news regarding the prevailing economic crunch and political turbulence, visiting Chitral to conduct a Diagnostic Study was a fulfilling promenade. The study was multidimensional, deep and informative. Apart from drinking directly from the fountain of nature, starting from the 9th of May 2022, the week was full of learning, data collection and […]

Contemporary populism is what modern literature refers to as an engine of “illiberal democracy”-a system of governance derived from a political campaign translating “popular preferences into public policy without caring about the impediments that prevent liberal democracies from responding effectively to urgent problems.” The South Asian polity is highly vulnerable to such experiments due to […]

There is a consensus that Pakistan’s economy needs FDI to bounce back. Clouded in geo-strategic storms and political instability, however, attracting FDI towards Pakistan is a tough row to hoe. Nevertheless, China’s massive economic explosion outwards is a tide of time, if surfed intelligently, it can galvanize the industrial transformation in Pakistan. The challenge is […]

Heroes develop systems, but quacks do not. Fortnightly, at the time of the full and new moon, the Buddha used to gather his Sangha to conduct a study circle based on codes of conduct to re-invigorate a mutual bond between the Threefold Refuge including the Buddha, the doctrine, and the sangha (the monastic order). He […]

Taliban’s take over has unveiled the dawn of a new political dispensation in the Middle East and West Asia. To prognosticate the dynamics of this dispensation, the composition of Afghan society, the anatomy of the Taliban’s movement, US failures, the conduct of the last Afghan government and regional politics are important variables. Afghan society is […]

During an interview with English-language state broadcaster, China Global Television Network (CGTN), Pakistan’s Prime Minister accused West of pressurising Pakistan to withdraw its cooperation from China’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative. Prime Minister Imran Khan has stressed that it was “very unfair” of the US and Western powers to “put pressure” on ‘’countries like Pakistan’’ […]

In 2002, General Pervez Musharraf opened up the media landscape to include private television channels. Since then, this sector has grown exponentially. Indeed, during an interview with BBC HARDTalk back in May, on the state of coercive media manipulation in the country, Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry boasted that: “Pakistan is probably one of the freest […]

Afghanistan awaits another withdrawal. Previously, it was back in the winter of 1989 when Gen. Boris Gromov of the Soviet 40th army crossed the Friendship Bridge on the current Uzbekistan-Afghanistan border. Simon Saradzhyan, the founding director of the Russia Matters Project at Harvard Kennedy School concludes, “The soviets failed to ensure a sufficiently broad and comprehensive inter-agency […]

The Israel-Palestine region is located at the eastern shore of the Mediterranean sea. It comprises modern Israel and the Palestinian territories of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank bordering Jordan, Syria, Egypt, Lebanon, and the Mediterranean. The territory has historically remained important for the great powers; from the Romans, Muslims, to the British. For […]