State of Pakistan

PAKISTAN’s WAY FORWARD: A Fundamental Change in Foreign Policy

2010-09-06T19:46:58Z

Disengagement, Realignment, and Empowerment Read this article in PDF By Yousuf Nazar September 6, 2010 Admiral Mike Mullen (first from left), the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Pakistani Army Chief Gen. Pervez Kayani (third from left) and next to him, the ISI Chief Ahmed Shuja Pasha (then Major Gen. and Director General Military Operations) aboard the U.S. naval carrier Abraham Lincoln [...]

Energy in Brazil: Ethanol’s mid-life crisis

2010-09-06T10:17:01Z

The sugar industry produces food, fuel and environmental benefits. How fast it grows may depend on an argument about how it should be regulated? From the Economist, Sept 2, 2010 IT IS what passes for a winter’s day in upstate São Paulo. The sun is blazing from a blue sky feathered lightly with cirrus cloud. In a large, [...]

How the mobile internet will transform the BRICI countries

2010-09-06T10:13:22Z

The Economist Sept 2, 2010 BUYING a mobile phone was the wisest $20 Ranvir Singh ever spent. Mr Singh, a farmer in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, used to make appointments in person, in advance, to deliver fresh buffalo milk to his 40-odd neighbours. Now his customers just call when they want some. Mr Singh’s [...]

Al Qaeda is not a deadly threat: Newsweek

2010-09-06T07:38:15Z

From Newsweek September 4, 2010 What America Has Lost By Fareed Zakaria Nine years after 9/11, can anyone doubt that Al Qaeda is simply not that deadly a threat? Since that gruesome day in 2001, once governments everywhere began serious countermeasures, Osama bin Laden’s terror network has been unable to launch a single major attack on high-value targets in [...]

Establishment’s Judiciary

2010-09-04T08:53:15Z

Read this article in PDF September 3, 2010 By Yousuf Nazar If there is one case which the Supreme Court (SC) of Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry does not consider important or fit enough for a suo-moto action is the yet unresolved investigation of the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. It is ironic that it was also the Supreme Court [...]

Bangladesh’s Secular Revolution

2010-08-31T05:05:07Z

From the Wall Street Journal August 31, 2010 By K. ANIS AHMED In the pantheon of Islamic states, Bangladesh seems an unlikely place for a secular revolution. It is a dry country with no bars, casinos or horse races. Bangladesh is not liberal in its social mores, compared to Muslim-majority countries like Turkey or Indonesia. And secular [...]

Gaddafi’s antics in Italy do no good to Muslim world’s image

2010-08-31T04:44:59Z

From Daily Mail, UK By Nick Pisa 31st August 2010 A British actress was among 500 glamorous women invited to a ‘convert to Islam party’ thrown by Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi yesterday. Clio Evans, 28, was recruited via an agency along with hundreds of other women for the second day running as the [...]

Stiglitz’s views on Asia

2010-08-30T13:30:44Z

From The Asset Magazine August 23, 2010 By Daniel Yu In his latest book, Freefall, the 2001 Nobel Laureate for Economics, Joseph Stiglitz, professor of economics, Columbia University, says “the big lesson of this crisis is that despite all the changes in the last few centuries, our complex financial sector was still dependent on trust. When trust broke [...]

How to Leave Afghanistan Without Losing: by Selig Harrison

2010-08-24T23:52:32Z

From Foreign Policy Magazine August 24, 2010 The regional neighbors have no desire to legitimate an enduring U.S. presence in the country Russia, Iran, India, China, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan — share the U.S. goal of preventing the return of a Taliban dictatorship in Kabul The biggest obstacle to the accord is not likely to come from Pakistan, but from [...]

Is Pakistan heading toward martial law?

2010-08-23T08:11:21Z

August 23, 2010 By Yousuf Nazar Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) chief Altaf Hussain has demanded of ‘patriotic Pakistan Army generals’ to take action against corrupt politicians, as was done in the past martial laws in the country, saying “MQM will openly support such generals.” He said that in the past, no political leaders were held responsible for [...]

Pakistan floods: disaster of epic proportions raises the spectre of systemic collapse

2010-08-11T11:40:32Z

3.5 millon children at risk , economy and exports to contract as losses could exceed $15bn Pakistan seeks restructuring of $10bn IMF loan as the United Nations urges help and raises $500 million By Yousuf Nazar On Aug. 21, around 150,000 Pakistanis in Sindh province were evacuated to higher ground because of the swollen Indus River, a [...]

U.S. Is Bankrupt and We Don’t Even Know It

2010-08-11T07:08:47Z

Commentary by Laurence Kotlikoff Aug. 11 (Bloomberg) — Let’s get real. The U.S. is bankrupt. Neither spending more nor taxing less will help the country pay its bills. What it can and must do is radically simplify its tax, health-care, retirement and financial systems, each of which is a complete mess. But this is the good [...]

Pakistan floods: Hyderabad threatened as more than 14 million homeless

2010-08-10T16:13:35Z

Aug. 10 (Bloomberg) — 6.13pm PST Pakistan’s most destructive flood in memory surged south toward Hyderabad, the biggest city in its path, as the government and aid agencies said they are unable to reach or help many of the 14 million uprooted so far.

Wishing the deluge away

2010-08-10T14:25:37Z

Tuesday, August 10, 2010 By Talat Farooq From the News International Flooding of this magnitude would be a daunting challenge for any country but for Pakistan, already submerged in terrorism and poverty, such a natural disaster quickly transforms into a catastrophe that grows with every passing day and whose social and economic repercussions will continue to haunt the [...]

Flood damage assessment (part - 2) Baluchistan

2010-08-10T08:42:38Z

Please click here to read the original full report by Relief International The last week of July 2010, heavy rains caused extensive flooding in most parts of Balochistan Province. On August 2, the Relief International (RI) field team assessed five districts in Balochistan to determine emergency needs and priorities. RI’s field team found that the most [...]

Floods damage assessment (part -1) Kyber PK

2010-08-10T07:25:22Z

Click here to download original full report by Relief International; SUMMARY The recent floods in Pakistan have resulted in devastation across the country. On July 27, heavy rains started falling on most parts of Khyber Paktoonkwha (KPK) Province, impacting more 1.5 million people, and severe damage to 156,934 homes.Due to the inaccessibility of many affected areas, agencies are [...]

The Percentage of Poor in Pakistan is 51 percent, reports an Oxford University Study

2010-07-31T04:07:09Z

A survey of 104 developing countries by the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative at the University of Oxford measures the incidence of poverty using overall living conditions for households. According to this survey , the percentage of poor in Pakistan is 51% compared to 17%to 22% poverty rates cited in the official statistics. Pakistan’s rank is 31st from the bottom among [...]

U.S. Forces Step Up Pakistan Presence : Wall Street Journal

2010-07-25T09:38:56Z

JULY 20, 2010 By JULIAN E. BARNES WASHINGTON—U.S. Special Operations Forces have begun venturing out with Pakistani forces on aid projects, deepening the American role in the effort to defeat Islamist militants in Pakistani territory that has been off limits to U.S. ground troops.

Is global economy headed for recession?

2010-07-19T03:59:41Z

By Yousuf Nazar DAWN, July 19, 2010 The most recent economic data from the United States points to a marked slowdown and has disappointed most economists who had been predicting better results.

Pakistan: A Nation in Denial

2010-07-08T12:23:14Z

A shortened version of this article appeared in The Tribune on July 5, 2010 By Yousuf Nazar It is common to blame the rulers and elites for Pakistan’s failure to evolve as a stable and civilized society with a viable political system. Few Pakistanis blame themselves. I have thought many times about putting this in writing but [...]