FATF’s concerns

THE latest message from Paris is unmistakable. The tone of the Financial Action Task Force on the conclusion of its plenary indicates how seriously...

Image often mirrors reality

THE people may be going under, given the weight of what is increasingly looking like stagflation, but the government, its head, and other key...

Sure, fire the captain!

One hopes PCB (Pakistan Cricket Board) has a more comprehensive plan for raising the game’s standard than just showing the captain the door. Ex-...

Religious card

Moulana Fazalur Rehman President of JUI(F)has been bickering against the present government for the last one year after losing the electoral battle...

Trading tires: How the West fuels a waste crisis in Asi

When night falls in the Indian village of Nabipur, the backyard furnaces come to life, burning waste tires from the West, making the air thick with...

Knowing what works in development

Last week Esther Duflo, Abhijit Bannerji and Michael Kremer were awarded 2019 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for their experimental approach in...

Wandering in a wilderness

At about the same time Prime Minister Imran Khan was launching the ambitious Kamyab Jawan Programme at the Convention Centre in Islamabad on...

Walk to Karbala

It was just after 2:00am when we left one of the many roadside rest and recuperation camps – this run by a generous Pakistani family – along the...

Mission (Im)possible

From Gandhi to Modi

Kashmir lockdown: reading the Indian mindset

The writer is a freelance journalist The lockdown in India-Occupied Kashmir (IOK) is in its third month. The Kashmir dispute and the on-ground...

Institutions also need attention

Entry denied

IN keeping with their paranoia of an independent media, the authorities in Pakistan deported Steven Butler of the Committee to Protect Journalists...

The politics of hunger

THE current government seems to have a very simplistic idea of the welfare state. Its much-trumpeted slogan of ‘change’, which the government...

Resurrection of economy under Imran Khan

Prime Minister Imran Khan. PHOTO: FILE Eight hundred thousand new tax filers. Exports up 12%. New circular debt down by 68%. These are three...

Captaincy rigmarole

THE PCB, with its knack of attracting controversy, has once again made a hash of a simple change of guard in the national cricket team. As the...

Where the problem resides

Bureaucracy is the hand of any government. Without efficient and effective bureaucracy, no government can convert its vision into reality....

Losing identity on foreign soil

Whiling wiping off his tears, he looked at me and said, “I was not one of them, I was not corrupt that’s the only issue they had with me. After...

In FATF web

The warning from the FAFT sounds serious. A statement issued by the global anti-money laundering watchdog in Paris yesterday “strongly urges...

Cities and looming climatic changes

Twenty first century is a century of cities and it is obvious from world’s urbanization pace that global landscape is urbanizing expeditiously....

What the economy needs

The economy is neither a contest of bat and ball nor one of lies or – to be politically correct – ‘U-turns’, which create uncertainty and...

About the current account

What better news for the government to wake up to than a 64 percent reduction in the current account deficit, year-on-year, in the first quarter of...

The politics of mediation between Tehran and Riyadh

Pakistan’s effort to mediate between Saudi Arabia and Iran can offer Islamabad much-needed space to manoeuvre its relationship with the...

Child protection

ONCE the news of the rape and murder of four boys in Chunian, Kasur, was aired earlier this month, outraged folks recommended that exemplary...

Climbing Maulana’s back

JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman. PHOTO: ONLINE/FILE “The measure of a man is what he does with power,” said Pittacus, a Greek General almost...

The olive tree plan

In addition to its ongoing 10 billion tree plantation campaign, the federal government is planning to launch a 50 million Olive Tree Tsunami plan...

Royal endorsement

Despite some turbulent weather, the five-day tour of the British royals to Pakistan was wrapped up as smoothly as their wrinkle-free culturally-...

Enduring backwardness

The Industrial Revolution created a transformative critical juncture for the whole world during the nineteenth century and beyond: those societies...

International Tax emergency. a critical time for developing nations to speak up!

In the face of global outrage at the low or no taxes paid by some of the world’s largest multinationals, the Group of 20 appointed the...

Wellness Genie: laughter as medicine

Jokes apart, when was the last hearty laughter that brought tears downs your cheeks? Laughter has become a keen topic for scientific research in...

Tankers defer retrofits to cash in on freight rates

Tankers that had been scheduled to install emissions-cutting equipment ahead of stricter pollution standards starting in 2020 have deferred their...

Why do police resort to torture in custody?

In the aftermath of Salahudin’s death in Punjab police custody, the custodial torture has become a burning issue. It remained a part of the media...

Lady Boss: Meher Iqbal Talk with the Dubai-based Jewellery designer, CEO of Meher Jewellery

We’ve all heard about the fabulous dinners and GTs by Pakistanis living in Dubai. But when we see one of our own doing so well abroad and building...

A history of violence

The American story of goodness and benevolence has always depended on a particular conception of time linked to selective history. The Indian Wars...

Information warfare

A RECENT BBC investigation revealed the use of social media bots to promote a pro-government agenda in Papua, Indonesia, where the military has...

Confusion

Confusion is defined as “uncertainty about what is happening, intended or required”. As far as the economy is concerned we know what is...

Owning the Kashmir cause will unite Pakistan - PART-I

The cruel joke must end

Zaheer Bhatti THE Quaid-i-Azam who was quoted by Mountbatten as “a man as stubborn as Jinnah he had never met in his life, who would say a thing...

Child’s maintenance & family laws

Hafiz Muhammad Azeem JUDGE Leon R Yankwich once said, “There are no illegitimate children, only illegitimate parents”, and this also our belief...

Why West craves materialism and East sticks to religion — II

Kanwar Muhammad Dilshad THERE was a sequence of events in the 80s that moved me toward God as the Qur’an says: ‘There are signs for people of...

India’s migration politics will destabilise BD — II

B Z Khasru Dhaka-Delhi ties face test: But all these goodwill gestures may soon start unraveling, thanks to an explosive claim by Modi’s...