Tag Archives: columns

Last week the Biden administration released its unclassified National Defense Strategy (NDS). The document was well written and proposed several new concepts and definitions that differed from the past Obama and Trump NDS’s. The aims of these two prior NDS’s were variants of “contain, compete, deter and if war arises defeat” China, Russia, North Korea, Iran and violent extremism. However, ...

The International Conference on Global Security Threat and Response (GSTAR-2022) was organised by Islamabad’s leading think-tank, the Centre for Aerospace & Security Studies (CASS) on 19-20 October 2022. One of the primary purposes of the Conference was to review aerospace security at global as well as regional levels, for which subject experts from across the globe were invited to speak ...

It is common knowledge that investment in agriculture revives growth quickly, especially when the economy has been on the downhill. The declining index of manufacturing since March signalled the need for alternative action. But it took the march of a different kind in the wake of floods — the Kissan March in September — to wake up the government. The ...

Our part of the world is well accustomed to contending with droughts and floods. However, the intensity of these natural events is becoming increasingly evident. Witnessing the calamitous flooding which has wreaked havoc across the country this year, even the UN General Secretary stated that Pakistan is confronting “a monsoon on steroids”. Disaster mitigation, disaster adaptation and the demand for ...

Balancing Civ-Mil is what we assume in Pakistan is the key to our governance and policy issues. Popular thought would have you believe that were it to be resolved we could be a far better place. Nothing obfuscates the reality more than the hype and chimera of democratic tradition and civilian supremacy in which name we root our political system. ...

I am grateful to all my family members, friends and relatives who expressed their best wishes on my 50th birthday on November 1. Birthdays carry special importance for people. This day reminds them that a person, who was born in a state of helplessness and as a weak child, was once entirely dependent on parents and society to survive. With ...

The long march has been on the road for a full one week now with no visible indication of it weakening either in numbers, or in the trademark expression of the intensity of passion associated with it. From city to city, the march has been welcomed by multitudes of supporters with a vow to stand with Imran Khan for the ...

IF the floods were a natural calamity, Pakistan’s population explosion is no less than a man-made disaster. Dr Shershah Syed, a well-known gynaecologist, estimates that there are 75,000 pregnant women in Sindh’s flood-affected areas who need antenatal care. This is not surprising. It has been conclusively observed that fertility rates are closely linked with the status of women, female education ...

THE devastating floods in Pakistan are a manifestation of climate change. Whatever development gains had been made over the decades in the flood-affected districts were washed away within a few days. Pakistan will take years to recover from this deluge. The nature of various manifestations of climate change in the form of frequent extreme weather events — heavy and prolonged rains, cloudbursts, flash ...

Pakistani markets have been under persistent uncertainty since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. The situation has been further aggravated by the Russian-Ukraine conflict, surge in global commodity prices, sharp depreciation of the Rupee, and recent havoc by the deadly floods. Overall, the uncertainty has turned into an economic scenario where the country is faced with low growth prospects, persistent ...