by Dr Pervez Tahir in The Express Tribune, January 1st, 2021The writer is a senior political economist based in Islamabad. He can be reached at [email protected] the outgoing year left almost nothing to celebrate, the new year opens its account with the chilling news of a series of spikes in the electricity tariff agreed with the IMF to administer “old wine in an old bottle” to the problem of ever-rising circular debt. This follows the…
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Report in Dawn, January 1st, 2021GILGIT: Two police guards of the assistant commissioner Jaglot were arrested here the other day for torturing a taxi driver as people took to the streets in Hunza, Nagar and Gilgit, demanding strict action against the accused. According to an application moved with the Karakoram International University police station in Gilgit, a government vehicle (Vigo PG-562) hit a taxi on the KIU Road on Tuesday evening and sped away. When…
by MANSOOR ALI in The Nation, Jan 1,2021ISLAMABAD – Tehreek-e-Tahaffuz-e-Masaajid-o-Madaris (TTMM) on Thursday rejected the Waqf Amlak Act 2020 and termed it a tactic to link religious seminaries with terrorism. The conference summoned by the Tehreek-e-Tahaffuz-e-Masaajid-o-Madaris in Islamabad was attended by religious scholars from all schools of thought including Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI) Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri, head of the Ittehad-e-Tanzeemat Madaris Mufti Muneebur Rehman, Jamaat-e-Islami senior leader Liaqat Baloch and many other religious scholars. Addressing…
The writer teaches at the University of Malakand.US President-elect Biden’s administration will be faced with a number of mounting challenges at home and abroad to restore the buoyancy and lost ego of the sole superpower at the global stage. Domestically, the greatest task is how to cope with the Covid-19 pandemic as the disease has brought havoc to the American nation and has raised doubts over the capability and potential of the US healthcare system…
The writer is a former ambassador to the US, India and China and head of UN missions in Iraq and Sudan.Writing about Pakistan’s foreign policy is not easy. It is a function of Pakistan’s national policy which is determined by domestic realities and power structures that have, by and large, proven inimical to the interests of its people. What needs to be done to break free of these vice-like limits on Pakistan’s potential is generally…
In the past, Pakistan was known to be a major importer of weapons from China and the United States. Naturally our purchase of armaments, made necessary by constant Indian intimidation, tolled a heavy import bill. With the country steadily working towards decreasing imports, Pakistan has focused on domestic manufacturing—and this seems to extend to military equipment as well. Thus, much hard work has gone into the JF-17 Thunder, a joint venture between Pakistan and China,…
The authors are freelance journalists.As January 20th approaches, the world awaits the inauguration of Joe Biden as the 46th President of the United States. With a plethora of challenges facing the US, Joe Biden has his plate full. How does he meander through a matrix of strategic challenges at home and abroad is a million dollar question. Domestically, he faces five major challenges left over by the Trump presidency; the COVID pandemic ravaging through towns…
Yesterday, Pakistan Air Force officially launched the production work of JF-17 Block -III aircraft at Pakistan Aeronautical Complex Kamra and celebrated the completion of dual seat version of JF-17 aircrafts for PAF. It was a momentous and historic day for Pakistan Air Force. Air Chief Marshal Mujahid Anwar Khan was the Chief guest of the ceremony. Whereas Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan Amb. Nong Rong and a delegation of Nigeria was also present at the ceremony.…
by Khurram Husain in Dawn, December 31st, 2020The writer is a member of staff.SOMETIME around the first week of December, the residents of Gwadar woke up to find work taking place to build a large metal fence that would stretch from just north of the old airport and extend westward along a road known as the Balochistan Broadway Avenue. The total length of the fence would be 24 kilometres, and according to what the locals…
The writer is a member of the National Assembly.Declan Walsh’s ‘The Nine Lives of Pakistan’ augments a veritable genre – books on our embattled homeland by anglophone Western journalists. A layered title, unique biographical approach, and acute observation make this the most insightful among recent works of reportage on the land of the pure. Books of reportage on Pakistan were few and far between before the 1990s. Pakistanis had to content themselves either with reading…
Passport drama : edit in Dawn, Jan 1st, 2021
AFTER claiming for months that it will bring former prime minister Nawaz Sharif back to Pakistan from London, the government has decided to cancel his passport. Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid made the sudden announcement during a press conference in the capital days after he said he would check when Mr Sharif’s passport would expire. Sources in his ministry revealed, however, that Mr Sharif’s passport is set to expire on Feb 16, so it appears that…