Pakistan’s strategic directions set forth in the backdrop of enmity with India and geo-political dynamics continue to disrupt the country’s transition to democracy and the way to recognise people’s rights.
The 2022 floods in Pakistan were considered one of the most devastating climate change-related disasters, impacting nearly 33 million people across the country. The rehabilitation efforts in the hardest hit province of Sindh represent the complex interplay between domestic and international emergency response politics, and the limitations of the system to address vulnerabilities besieging communities prone to disaster risk.
Human development is of paramount importance for economic growth, as it fosters a population of healthy, educated, skilled, motivated and hopeful individuals who, endowed with liberty, naturally aspire to achieve development for themselves and society as well. In the context of Pakistan’s contemporary challenges, the writer argues that investing in its people could pave the way for the country’s socioeconomic development.
Terrorism is essentially a political problem and requires a political response: administrative arrangements including policing alongside socioeconomic development. The recent upsurge in terrorism has pushed Pakistan to revisit its policy options because military action alone would be a short-lived achievement. The writer explains as how the resurgence of terrorism in Pakistan is linked back to geopolitics and the country’s policy implications.
The majority of Pakistan’s labour force grapples with decent work challenges, leading to continuation of informalisation, child and forced labour as well as increasing employment vulnerability and job insecurity. In this article, the writer sheds light on the challenges being faced by the country’s workforce while also pointing out structural challenges in Pakistan’s labour policy design and delivery in relation with complexity of the labour market economy.
As Pakistan turns 76, it is time to recognise the resilience of the country’s political forces and the parliament that have played a role in strengthening democracy and parliamentary systems.
The five-year term of the National Assembly was completed in August under the Pakistan Muslim League (N) led ruling coalition. Legislative changes recently carried out have given additional power to the interim government and led to concerns that elections will be delayed and any polls under the ‘empowered’ caretaker government may not be an answer to Pakistan’s chronic political instability. The writer reflects on the challenges that lie ahead for the country.
Distressed by economic meltdown and political crisis, Pakistan entered into its 23rd programme with IMF in July 2023. The article analyses how the country’s reluctance to undertake policy actions for macroeconomic stabilisation – an IMF prescription – keeps pushing it back into a never ending cycle of dependency on external creditors.
Due to rising temperatures, glaciers in Pakistan’s northern mountain ranges are melting rapidly. Pakistan’s GLOF-I and II projects have sought to address the risks associated with the hazardous glacial lake outburst flooding. The writer analyses the projects and policies targeting climate change risk reduction.
Religious extremism is a complex phenomenon and the elements that go in to making a person/group adopt extremist ideology can be diverse and difficult to untangle. In the backdrop of the recent mob vigilante violence against the Christian community, the writer analyses factors that have led to religious discrimination against the minorities in Pakistan.