THE year 2024 could not have started on a worse note. First, a humanitarian catastrophe of genocidal proportions has been unfolding in Gaza for over three months, owing to daily attacks by Israel’s defence forces. The Houthis are attacking merchant ships in the Red Sea, obliging the US and other countries to mobilise their navies. […]

PAKISTAN’S national security has lately been under threat on its eastern as well as western borders. On the eastern frontier, India’s attitude towards Pakistan has unfortunately hit a new low. The Modi regime is constantly innovating prickly ways to assert its growing hubris in the neighbourhood and beyond. Its latest practice is to deploy assassins […]

PAKISTAN is in the grip of bad news. While much of it is fake because the detractors of Pakistan are at work, some of the bad news is also real. Decades of bad governance has shaken the confidence of the people in the rulers they elect or even in the system which brings them to […]

AS relations between India and Pakistan remain frosty, a theatrical play in Washington has stirred conversations on peaceful coexistence, inter-faith harmony, and the need for a fresh look at the history of the two countries. The play Gandhi and Jinnah return home, discussed at the Karachi Literature Festival last week, describes how far the two […]

PAKISTAN is passing through a challenging time. A divisive and polarising politics, economic uncertainties, and the continuing threat of violent extremism are some of the fault lines that impede the country’s path to stability. India, on the other hand, seems to be politically stable and economically well-off. However, if one were to scratch this veneer […]

AS the new government settles down, it is confronted with a broad spectrum of challenges that demand immediate attention and strategic action. Internally, political instability, economic fragility, and growing security threats have taken a heavy toll. Externally, the fracturing world order, intensifying US-China rivalry, an aggressive neighbour to the east, and a volatile situation to […]

A 10-POINT priority agenda evolved during various conversations convened by the Sanober Institute was laid out in my article, ‘Setting priorities’, last week. However, setting priorities can only be effective if accompanied by an implementable action plan. To that end, there are essentially five sets of actions that the government should consider in order to […]

FOLLOWING Liaquat Ali Khan’s assassination in 1951, Pakistan witnessed a carousel of prime ministers, with six leaders in seven years, each serving an average term of 14 months. The wobbly start not only destabilised governance, but also paved the way for Gen Ayub Khan’s first military coup. The constituent assemblies floundered, and could not agree […]

IN 1992, Bill Clinton ran his campaign for US presidency on three slogans, one of which was ‘It’s the economy, stupid’. In the backdrop of the economic downturn of the early 1990s, Clinton’s focus on economic revival resonated well with his voters, and within three years, economic growth picked up. Ever since, the phrase ‘It’s […]

FIVE years after World War II, French foreign minister Robert Schuman proposed that the coal and steel industries of France and West Germany be placed under a single authority to prevent another war between the two countries. This ‘solidarity in production’ led to a common market in Europe, and eventually morphed into what became the […]