DESPITE a 10-month-high foreign direct investment of $317.4m in the previous month, net FDI flows into the country shrank by 14.5pc to $587.5m in the first four months of the ongoing fiscal from a year ago. That is not all. A major chunk of the direct investment flows made its way from China to coal and other power projects being constructed as part of the CPEC initiative following the resumption of work on schemes during…
Posts published in “Pak Media comment”
by Saleem Safi in The News,Nov 18,2020The writer works for Geo TV.……..The US is known for its cherished ideals of liberty and equality for all. But Trump, in the name of change, severely damaged these sacred values by hatred and racism. Imran also damaged, in his pursuit of so-called change, the traditional values of Pakistani society which is known for decency and respect for elders and women. Trump polarized American politics and society; Imran has…
by Zahid Hussain in Dawn, November 18th, 2020The writer is an author and journalist.WEEKS after Nawaz Sharif launched his no-holds-barred attack on the army leadership holding the chief responsible for the current political crisis, his daughter signalled her party’s willingness to open a dialogue with the security establishment. But for that she first wants the ouster of Prime Minister Imran Khan’s government. She has also said that some members of her party had already been…
Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan, which had gone into hibernation after getting a bloody nose in 2018, is back into action once again. After leading a big rally in Karachi, it is now holding a sit-in at Faizabad, blocking Islamabad-Rawalpindi traffic, preventing children from going to schools and employees to Islamabad Secretariat. Attempts by Punjab’s ineffectual CM to stop the TLP supporters from holding the protest have failed. Despite raids and arrests in several cities and sealing Rawalpindi’s…
MANY a reactionary outfit has been allowed to thrive on Pakistani soil. Each one of them has ill served the global image of this county. Indeed, their incendiary rhetoric and violent actions have reinforced the enemy’s narrative and weakened our principled positions on regional human rights issues. And in its efforts to ‘manage’ the violence these ultra right-wing outfits wreak, the government cedes more and more space to them — a vicious cycle that appears…
It seems that the 11-party opposition alliance, the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), has some repair work to do to regain some of the momentum that it built with its first few rallies. The press is clearly not going to stop speculating about the deeper meaning behind PPP Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto’s remarks just last week, when he tried to distance himself from former prime minister Nawaz Sharirf’s accusations that have since drawn allegations of treason from…
by Haque is the vice-chancellor of PIDE. & Jalal is the founder of Zambeel Partners and Pakistan2047.In 1215 AD, King John of England signed the Magna Carta (‘The Great Charter’) – a historic power-sharing arrangement with a group of rebel barons. Its philosophy is enshrined in the British legal system, as well as the American constitution. What were the principles of Magna Carta that led to the emergence of two successive superpowers? In its sixty-three…
(The writer is Professor Emeritus at BNU and former Federal Minister). The external debt of Pakistan stands at $113.8 billion as of the end of September 2020. It has registered an increase of only $0.9 billion in this quarter. Therefore, there are indications that the pace of accumulation of external debt has slowed down. During the corresponding quarter of 2019-20 it was also relatively small at 0.8 billion. The historical growth path of external debt…
Op-ed by Salman Munir in Pakistan Today, Nov 17, 2020The writer is a management consultantIn the 2009 film “The International”, Louis Salinger (Clive Owen) an Interpol agent, and Eleanor Whitman (Naomi Watts) a US Assistant District Attorney for Manhattan, jointly investigate corruption in International Bank of Business and Credit (IBBC), a fictional bank based in Luxembourg. During the course of their investigation they meet Umberto Calvini (Luca Barbareschi) an Italian politician and big arms manufacturer…
BECAUSE Balochistan is seen as relatively ‘far’ from the national political mainstream in this country, whenever high officials visit the province expectations are high. During Prime Minister Imran Khan’s trip to Balochistan last week, a number of promises were made to the people of Pakistan’s geographically largest but also its most underdeveloped province. Mr Khan rightly pointed out that to ensure a strong country, all federating units must taste the fruits of development. Unfortunately, despite…
PM’s Covid concerns: Editorial in Dawn, November 18th, 2020
PRIME MINISTER Imran Khan in his address to the nation on Monday made some significant remarks about the growing number of Covid-19 cases in the country. Mr Khan announced restrictions on all public gatherings, which effectively limits political rallies by his own party as well as those of the opposition. This is a welcome decision. Covid-19 cases are spreading at an alarming rate, with the national positivity rate inching towards 7pc — a frightening statistic…