Articles & Column

Ruling elites in Pakistan have lost the moral legitimacy to lead in the public eye because of their extremely low performance. Consider. Pakistan has generously received foreign funding for economic and social development during the last 70 years but it has resulted in a dismal […]

It appears the whole PDM leadership is fixated on how to technically knock out Imran Khan from the political arena. This obsession arises from their realization that they cannot face him in a free and fair election. This is cemented regularly by the huge crowds […]

Abid Malik Managing Director of Indus Venture recently made an interesting remark on Pakistan’s success in receiving IMF loan. He said that “This is not a moment to celebrate but a time to start worrying about how a jobless and cashless generation is going to […]

Pakistan is going through intensely traumatic times. Floods and rain has inundated half the country. Vast swaths of rural and urban spaces have been devastated. Millions of acres of standing crops and animals have been washed away. Homes, roads, bridges have been destroyed. Thousands of […]

On August 14 Fareed Zakria interviewed the former president of Afghanistan Ashraf Ghani on CNN’s program Global Public Square. Ashraf like Mahbub ul Haq, Ha Joon Chang, and John Maynard Keynes is among the intellectuals who keep revisiting and evolving their ideas and who dare […]

Habibullah Kalkani better known as “Bachai Saqao”, which means a water carrier, ruled Afghanistan from January 17th to October 1929. He forced King Amanullah to abdicate. He was thrown out by Nadir Shah. Kalkani, of Tajik origins, came from a humble background, earning his livelihood […]

“The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed”. Steve Biko Many of my friends wonder how changing at the personal level can bring changes at the national level. It does not make sense because it is counter […]

Punjabi is a flamboyant language. Its one-liners convey more than a thousand words. The present situation bringsto mind “chor uchka Chaudhry tey gundee Run bardhan.”It translates “when the head of a clan is a rogue and a thief, his gangster counterpart reigns supreme.” I don’t […]

In the late 1990s, an NGO partner of UNDP convened an all-parties conference on environment in Islamabad. There were many interesting speakers, but Dr. Ghulam Hussain, former Secretary General of the Pakistan People’s Party made 3 thought provoking comments on the failure of our system […]

I used to farm in Kasur till I moved to Canada. In the earlynineties rural areas had limited TV access. To while away evenings, we would invariably congregate at “deras” of local landowners. Conversations would touch uponvarious topics, including local issues. It included stories about […]