What is behind the LNG controversy?
The last few weeks media has been buzzing with allegations and counter-allegations about import of LNG. Both Dawn and Geo have put a figure of $200 milliom as losses due to delay…
A tale of two parties
All recent incoming governments in Pakistan have faced crises of various forms – the current one having its share of crises compounded by COVID. This government had promised a new approach to…
Suna hai Kay jungle ka Koi dastoor hota hai
(I hear that there is even a law in the jungle) Despite all the uncertainty due to security fears and the program changes the just held Lahore literary festival was a breath…
Watching the Umpires
All eyes on Panama Case’s verdict I believe it was the former England cricket Captain Geoffrey Boycott who once said “no one comes to a match to watch the umpires”. But in…
Orange Line turns red
The current case in the Supreme Court regarding the Orange line train has all the hallmarks of a classic David versus Goliath fight or – for the modern reader – the Star…
Qatar wins again
First the bustards, now this The physicist Steven Hawkings said that “The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance but it is the illusion of knowledge”. This is what the PML-N government…
Visit to Vietnam
Moving forward and putting the past in the past During the evacuation of Saigon in 1975 with the North Vietnamese troops closing on the city, the then Life-Time magazine editor sent a…
Salaam Pakistan
Spite, misbegotten pride and prejudice The scholar Ibn Khaldun in his seminal work the Muqaddimah states that “myths have nothing to do with history” and warns against “uncritical acceptance of historical data”,…
The Iran Pakistan India Pipeline
Money – as it so often does – Talks According to the Energy International Agency (EIA) the demand for gas in India shall continue to grow in the medium term. This shall…
Load shedding, load shedding, load shedding
And broken promises That the PML-N government despite its tall claims will be unable to end load shedding by March 2018 is a now a fore gone conclusion, despite the 10,000 MW…
Carrying coal to Sahiwal
Yet another PML-N project Of all the projects initiated by the PML-N government, in terms of its long term effect, the 1200 MW coal fired power station at Sahiwal has to be…
A binary new world
As the US election rolls in, we take stock Victorian England’s rivalry between Gladstone and Disraeli, produced some of the wittiest exchange of political insults. Gladstone once addressed Disraeli as “my honorable friend”…
Letter from Mianchannu
Why PTI is the new PML-Q Mianchannu district Khanewal is approximately 230 km south of Lahore and 60 km north of Multan, with a population of just over 100,000 it lies in…
Changes in car dynamics
And its impact A motor car is the second most expensive purchase – after a home that any person would make in his or her lifetime. As an industry it is worth…
Indus, the Source of Life
Why India’s refusal to honour the Indus Water Treaty is significant Water is the source of life, therefore the recent threat emanating from India not to honour the Indus Water Treaty (IWT)…
Heritage preservation lessons from Stonehenge
Preserving this part of our culture is a necessity Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument in west of England, over 4000-5000 years old Stonehenge’s ring of standing stones are set within earthworks in the middle of the most…