November 13, 2008

The other day, I asked Sanjay Siroya, a prominent gold and diamond powerhouse here in Dubai, how much gold he thought was in private hands in Pakistan. His reply stunned me

Now we all know that the halcyon days of mucho denairo or, as the Brits are prone to say, ‘loadsofmoney’ are over. Things are bad. Just how bad, the US Treasury Secretary won’t tell you, nor will the ‘Advisor to the Prime Minister’ on such matters. But a man named Hal Turner will.Read More »PERISCOPE: The name is Bond, Resurgent Bond —Mahmud Sipra

To paint another picture, there are nine Food Inspectors in Lahore. These are the people that ensure the food Lahoris eat is hygienic. For this important task, there should be 70 food inspectors. Because of the lack of enforcement of food regulations, our hospitals are full of patients with typhoid, cholera and diarrhoea (Pakistan is the second-highest in South Asia for number of child diarrhoea cases). Read More »A tale of two cities Part II- Ahmad Rafay Alam

In his Politics among Nations, Hans Morgenthau defined national security as “the integrity of the national territory and its institutions.” Till recently, national security meant a state’s freedom from another state. This definition envisages national security problems arising with countries that are close and/or powerful enough for their actions to threaten the security of the given state.
Read More »Concept of national security Part I- Ikram Sehgal