Caves to Kabul: the Anatomy of Failure on August 24, 2021Taliban’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 […]
NATO-China Cold War: the Strategic Fallout on July 16, 2021During 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’’ […]
Pakistan’s electronic media — credibility crisis on June 16, 2021In 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 […]
Going behind the Afghan civil war on June 4, 2021Afghanistan 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 […]
Inside the Palestine-Israel conflict on May 19, 2021The 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 […]
Journalism — shaping republics on May 5, 20211759, Peter Forsskal, the genius of the Swedish transformation, writes “finally it is also an important right in a free society to be freely allowed to contribute to society’s well-being. However, if that is to occur, it must be possible for society’s state of affairs to become known to everyone, and it must be possible […]
Global academic delay and digital divide on April 10, 2021Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI), Switzerland, published a study sampling 31,212 higher education students from 133 countries and 6 continents. The research finds “boredom, anxiety, and frustration” among students during lockdowns. The socio-demographic difference, gender, and nature of subjects are important variables in scoring the efficiency of online academics. Students classified as male, part-time, first-level, […]
Why an aesthetic society grows faster? on March 26, 2021That was a beautiful cloudy morning. A rhythmical, well-introduced voice sounded as I entered the back lawn of Islamabad Club with a light orchestra in the background. After saying thanks to my host, I rushed into the gathering area. “You become brave and generous when you have substance about life. Art is means of communication. […]
CPEC: An equal handshake? on March 14, 2021Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is transcontinental economic connectivityenvisioned in 2013 by China`s President Xi Jinping to “promote the connectivity of Asian, European and African continents and their adjacent seas, establish and strengthen partnerships among the countries along the Belt and Road, set up all-dimensional, multi-tiered, and composite connectivity networks, and realize diversified, independent, balanced […]
Magnanimity on the death rope on February 11, 2021T.G. Montgomery surveyed K2 as a part of Kashmir-China border demarcation during the British Survey of India in 1856. The colonials feared the Russian expansion southwards. K stands for Karakoram Range to the northeast of the Himalayas on the Pak-China border and 2 is the mountain number allotted by the surveyor. “I actually think it’s […]