The Imperial Presidency
WASHINGTON WATCH
News broke this week that President Donald Trump was conditioning approval of an infrastructure spending bill on renaming New York City’s Penn Station...
Beyond domestic discontent
For weeks, Iran has been convulsed by some of the most intense anti-government protests in its modern history. What began in late December 2025...
Markets without referees
In 2012, a book came out that reframed international thinking on development, Why Nations Fail, by Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson, challenged decades of...
Pakistan backs down
The excuses are already being trotted out that the greater good of the game was at stake, but the fact remains that Pakistan has...
Girls build nations
A nation that denies education to its daughters denies itself progress, prosperity and peace. Yet across Pakistan — and particularly in Balochistan — millions...
Facts over followers
Journalism has been a respected profession because it informs the public and keeps society aware and accountable. In Pakistan, many students study media and...
Security, sovereignty and the information battlefield
In Pakistan’s former tribal districts, particularly Tirah Valley, security operations are increasingly misrepresented through emotionally charged and strategically curated narratives. These portrayals, amplified by...
Wealth and power must walk with the people
Power has long announced itself through spectacle. From crowns and palaces to motorcades and guarded compounds, authority has sought visibility. Yet history’s deeper memory...
From festival to fasting
The state, in its ideal moral conception, resembles a mother—protective yet firm, generous yet disciplined. It provides security, creates opportunities, sets boundaries, and, when...
Basant’s careful return
The return of Basant to Lahore over the long weekend brought feelings of both nostalgia and anxiety for those that remember the festival in...
Cuts never end
THE growing frequency of side-road cutting and refilling in the Defence Housing Authority (DHA) area in Karachi for gas pipelines, waterworks, and telecommunications reveals...
Excess power wasted
Pakistan is producing excess electricity which is adding to the prevailing financial crisis in the country, as the government has had to pay for...
Interior Ministry versus the Mombay Bookies
What is it about the PCB and the BCCI, and the respective countries’ Interior Ministry? Pakistan is ahead, for the PCB President and the...
Neoliberalism and industrial policy
‘The term “neoliberalism” suggests a system of principles that is both new and based on classical liberal ideas… The doctrinal system is also known...
The digital library
I was sitting at my desk at 3 AM last night, looking at my digital tablet's bright screen scrolling through an archive for a...