A hard state? By Shahab Usto
THE recent in-camera civil-military huddle at Parliament House once again unfolded three conceptual cleavages that have rent apart the polity. One, the …
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From hard to harder By Sakib Sherani
‘There is no use of running on the wrong road’ — Turkish proverb ELITE misrule in Pakistan has scarred the …
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Losing the plot By Khurram Husain
YOU can tell when a government in Pakistan has lost the plot when they turn to the bureaucrats for ideas …
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First line of defence By Maleeha Lodhi
IF foreign policy is the country’s first line of defence it is disconcerting how successive governments have left the foreign …
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Neighbourly cooperation By Muhammad Amir Rana
PAKISTAN is an active member of the UN, with a track record of supporting the peaceful resolution of conflicts worldwide. …
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Coercive approach won’t work By Asif Durrani
IMAGINE Afghanistan and Pakistan becoming enemies, each seeking to undermine the other. However, history shows that the two nations share …
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Where’s the water? By Aasim Sajjad Akhtar
ON March 27, a report in this newspaper quoted an unnamed official of the irrigation bureaucracy as saying: “There is …
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New world order By Ali Tauqeer Sheikh
THE Trump administration has attacked the liberal world order, built on multilateral alliances like Nato, the EU and Bretton Woods …
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A predator state By Zahid Hussain
PAKISTAN appears to fit the definition of a ‘predator state’ which, according to economist James K. Galbraith, is “a political …
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Hard state, soft state By Ashraf Jehangir Qazi
Recently, the army chief addressed parliament after the Jaffar Express train attack in Balochistan. He said Pakistan had to become a “hard state” to …
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Frozen relations By Maleeha Lodhi
TWO recent developments have reinforced the fraught relationship between Pakistan and India, which makes the prospect bleak for any thaw …
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Political audit of Afghan policy By Rafiullah Kakar
THE latest clashes between Pakistani and Afghan security forces are yet another sign of the deepening rift between the two neighbours. Just …
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Time to come out of denial By Asif Durrani
THE question arises: why are the Afghan Taliban critical of the arrest of IS-K terrorist Sharifullah, alias Jafar, if they have …
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Threats, coercion & pushback By Maleeha Lodhi
IN the opening weeks of his second term, President Donald Trump has used threats, intimidation and coercion against both America’s …
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Making Britain great again? By Syed Mohammad Ali
The international development sector is in a state of shock. After the new American administration’s decision to freeze all development …
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The CPD forum By Luay Shabaneh
PAKISTAN is a member of the 58th UN Commission on Population and Development (CPD) session to be held next month. …
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History’s echoes By F.S Aijazuddin
TWO fateful decisions authored by the British government — the Balfour Declaration of 1917 and the Radcliffe Award of 1947 …
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Gambling with World War III By Jawed Naqvi
TOO many opposite and unyielding opinions are ranged on the subject, which requires an explanatory note before coming to the …
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