Pakistan got over $30 bln from China since 2014. but its economy today is much worse off than in 2014. $5bln from Saudis will do nothing to jump start our economy. Saudi money that goes into sectors that dont result in higher export earning will exacerbate our external deficit in

There is no alternative to democracy for Pak. In the long-term, it means better parties emerging. In the short-term, it means putting pressure on existing parties to emphasize merit in their governance, rather than exerting pressure on army to enact an unconstitutional govt of

Pakistan's bad luck: there is no difference in the capacity and motivations of those in power now and destroying it with both hands and those claiming to be its saviors and fighting the former. if the 'saviors' win, they will promptly start destroying what is left of Pakistan

Any time u see a govt appoint one new face, like Aurungzeb, but the same old faces in all other key positions, one can safely assume that the new face has just been included to fool ppl that the govt plans to undertake serious reforms while the reality is that it has no such

Must have been embarrassed and guilty to see the chaotic mess they have jointly created.

Whatever mess you see in pak today is almost all created directly or indirectly by pindi--that created by itself, or by the politicians it sponsored, or by the extremist groups it spawned, or by anchors it paid or by the enmities it instigated with regional states.

jo bhi kuch

The main reason for our economic mess is that from day 1, pakistan has focused on attracting lumpy investments from client rich states like USA and China based on political ties without reforming our economy, unlike India and BD which focused on being able to attract private

Pindi's hold over the country does not come from its military powers but the powers and reach of its intelligence apparatus. Ending pindi hold means unraveling this apparatus. that is why the spotlight put on it by 6 judges letter is so important.

My article in Daily Star Dhaka today on Middle-East war
thedailystar.net/opinion/geopol…

The reoccurring theme in #Pakistani politics is that continuing power struggles with the military lead to the deposition of civilian governments. 1/2

Niaz Murtaza dawn.com/news/1827757

Those regimes axed on policy clashes by Pindi often returned quickly, for example, the PPP and PML-N in the 1990s. Those daring to dream about clipping hallowed wings had very ugly fallouts and were banished for long. dawn.com/news/1827757/e…

The condemnable nushki terroeism incident by baloch militants again highlights the importance of allowing peaceful narratives like that of BYC to flourish and the imperative for state to have a dialogue with it to solve their genuine demands. There is no justification for killing

First thing to ask for is free elections. How can we even make public demands from the rigged parliaments we have now?

In terms of its evidence base, a technocracy is no better than a theocracy. Not a single country has used either of them successfully. There is no good quality, serious scholarship in support of either and the support for both is generally found only on social media and v-logs.

More than babu raj, we must end bapu raj which has given us parties like BAP and other political orphans.

Moon sighted!

There's this huge myth that governance just requires technical merit. governance, esp in a deeply fractured society like pak, requires both political and technical skills. the current system is over-politicized. But the way forward is not to strip it completely of politics but to

This is the most powerless govt to take over since the ones under martial law in 1985 and 2002 of Junejo and Jamali. Then the real power was in uniform. now the real power is in burqa. the parties that collaborated then were minor ones. now two major and oldest parties are

Pakistan's biggest challenge is to end Pindi's oversized role in areas beyond its core defence function under the supervision of elected govt. Pakistan cannot become a normal country until this happens.

Flawed argument. there is no evidence that Modi's strongman methods are needed to achieve economic progress. The foundation for India's progress was laid under Congress which did not adopt these methods.