BRICS, WHICH seeks to promote cooperation amongst Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, is expanding its ambit. The recently held summit in Johannesburg (Aug 22-24) invited Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the UAE to join BRICS. Three questions are dominating the discourse on this development: will an expanded BRICS enable the Global […]

LIFE in developed countries pivots around the rule of law. Every citizen is subjected to the same laws, and no one is above the law. However, despite full consensus on the validity of the rule of law, there are always implementation gaps. Take the US, whose founding fathers stressed on equality of all men, freedom […]

FOR most Pakistanis, the prevailing economic conditions have unleashed unprecedented hardship. Steep power tariffs and high fuel costs have made everything expensive. Even the basic necessities are now beyond the reach of the public. Spending consistently more than earning has indebted the country to the core. We have mortgaged the future of even our grandchildren. […]

THE seeds of mistrust between Afghanistan and Pakistan were sown even before independence in 1947. By 1946, it had become clear that British India would be partitioned. The Afghan government saw an opportunity to revise the Durand Line of 1893 and lay claim to several territories that were to become part of Pakistan. When a […]

OF late, there has been a rapid growth of think tanks in Pakistan. These organisations carry out policy-related research and are a platform for dialogue to facilitate informed decision-making. The growing community of think tanks in Pakistan is linked to the larger global research community. According to the Global Go To Think Tank Report 2020, […]

BOARDING schools have long been an integral feature of the educational landsc­ape worldwide. These schools provide education and boarding facilities for children aged six to 11 years or 13 to 18 years. Many parents prefer boarding schools for the hi­­g­h­­-quality education through dedicated tea­ching staff, smaller class sizes, individualised attention, and strong academic results. These […]

A POPULAR view by academics and politicians alike is that Hamas’s recent action of Oct 7 not only instigated Israel to exact the biggest ever death toll of Palestinians, even more than the Intifadas, but also undermined the peace process. However, this act did not take place in a vacuum. It was an act of […]

THE year 1947 witnessed the emergence of two disputes — Palestine and Kashmir. Both remain unresolved. At the heart of both disputes is the unfulfilled right of two peoples to self-determination. Both are protracted cases of resistance to foreign occupation. And in the genesis of both conflicts, the underlying common factor is the British geopolitics […]

SINCE the dawn of this century, terrorism has been the principal threat to the people of Pakistan. By 2015, Pakistani law-enforcement authorities had succeeded in crushing terrorist forces, through military operations in Swat, South Waziristan and North Waziristan. A National Action Plan was adopted in 2015 to flush out the remaining terrorist holdouts through intel-based […]

HUNDREDS of thousands of undocumented Afghan refugees are returning to their country. In principle, it makes perfect sense. No country allows illegal foreign nationals to stay on its land. Pakistan, too, has that right. Notably, at this stage, only undocumented refugees are being obliged to return home. The caretaker interior minister said in a Senate […]