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Friday April 19, 2024
M Zeb Khan
M Zeb Khan

The writer teaches at SZABIST, Islamabad

  • December 21, 2021

    Course correction

    Tragic incidents, as the one we all witnessed with great shock and anger in Sialkot, have left us with no option but to go back to our roots and...

  • November 30, 2021

    A global government

    Imagine this scene from the Stone Age: people are living in caves and are completely dependent on Nature for their survival; they are vulnerable to...

  • August 02, 2021

    The new abnormal

    Some universities around the globe had put in place strategic plans to capitalise on ICT and make a gradual shift to online education prior to the...

  • July 13, 2021

    Back to the 90s

    Afghanistan is on its way back to the 90s, when the then USSR withdrew under international pressure and internal economic mess.Back then,...

  • February 08, 2021

    No more excuses

    Last week, Prime Minister Imran Khan lamented that change of government in Pakistan every five years was tragic for setting long-term...

  • January 28, 2021

    Talking language

    Like many other unresolved perennial issues in Pakistan, the question of which language to use as medium of instruction during the formative years...

  • December 31, 2020

    Bean counting

    Every time one listens to a minister or reads a news story about what the government is doing and how well it is doing, one is only stuffed with...

  • November 07, 2020

    The visibility problem

    Islamophobia is now a real problem in the West and it has far-reaching consequences for the global order and peace.The West, comprising...

  • October 24, 2020

    Reincarnation of Taylorism

    Artificial Intelligence, which many believe is a force for good in the world, has actually a dark side for consumers, citizens, and especially for...

  • August 14, 2020

    Countering Hindutva

    Hindutva has permeated Modi’s India. Politics, medicine, social activities, and media all are deeply infected by a nostalgic need to restore the...

  • July 31, 2020

    Post-Covid society

    It is increasingly becoming clear that the post-Covid-19 world will be profoundly different from what humanity has been accustomed to for...

  • February 13, 2020

    Unbalanced balance sheet

    The traditional balance sheet, with its main emphasis on capital as the primary concern of managers, is skewed in favour of the shareholders and has...

  • January 28, 2020

    A tumultuous year

    The year 2019 started with clouds of despair and uncertainty hovering over the country’s economy and politics. It ended with much of the same –...

  • October 31, 2019

    On a collision course

    Paradoxically, as and when a state becomes more powerful than the society it rules, it begins to fade. In the same way, a society trying to grab...

  • September 24, 2019

    Forcing faith

    One problem with history is that it is amenable to many interpretations with its persistent misuse by the power elites through conscious efforts to...

  • August 24, 2019

    Reinventing the government

    What a government can and should do is a difficult question to answer. Even more problematic is the question of how to design the governance...

  • August 16, 2019

    Ignoring the signs

    Someone had to make the blunder of revoking Articles 370 and 35-A. It was long overdue, given the fact that the sham 'accession' of Kashmir to India...

  • August 03, 2019

    Selling slogans

    The proverb ‘empty vessels make the most noise’ aptly describes how our politicians behave inside and outside parliament – talking non-stop...

  • July 27, 2019

    Orwell is relevant

    With the emergence of the smartphone and the internet on the horizon of the 21st century, everyone imagined a world different from what it had been...

  • July 10, 2019

    Wrong incentives

    Money may motivate individuals to perform more and better but not always and not everywhere.At times it may be doing quite the opposite of what it...

  • June 29, 2019

    Technicians or humans?

    Education, once thought to be the key for unlocking human potential and a major driver of personality development, seems to have lost ground to...

  • June 22, 2019

    Wealth and welfare

    Imran Khan’s vision of transforming Pakistan into the state of Madina is what we all wish to happen. The Madina state, with so many challenges to...

  • May 07, 2019

    The bottomless pit

    Pakistan’s debt burden, which is almost breaking its back, is the outcome of poor economic management and bad politics. Reversing the trend is as...

  • April 10, 2019

    Promises vs compromises

    Let it not be construed from this writing that one is trying to sell hopelessness and nostalgia. Let bygones be bygones if the future offers us...

  • April 04, 2019

    Promises and compromises

    Let it not be construed from this writing that one is trying to sell hopelessness and nostalgia. Let bygones be bygones if the future offers us...

  • March 28, 2019

    Rightsizing

    The tragedy of the commons is a term used in the social sciences to describe a situation in a shared-resource system where individual users, acting...

  • March 04, 2019

    A vicious cycle

    How pitiful it is when twins cannot live together in peace. Seventy years of living in close geographical proximity but without much interaction...

  • January 12, 2019

    Random wars?

    Many believe that the US’s wars around the world are dictated by circumstance at hand and largely driven by high moral ideals such as protection...

  • January 03, 2019

    The dawn of 2019

    There are hopes and there are fears. As the saying goes, it is the best of times and the worst of times. At the dawn of 2019, we can collectively...

  • December 15, 2018

    Implementing change

    Most of us believed, and some still believe, that a third political force would introduce a new model of governance in Pakistan – a model focused...

  • October 30, 2018

    Learning from a distance

    In a country like Pakistan where geographical and financial problems may hinder access to education, distance learning seems to be the only...

  • October 16, 2018

    The cricket metaphor

    Imran Khan, our much-celebrated PM, draws heavily on cricket as a metaphor to share his views about the way he conducts himself in politics and his...

  • September 20, 2018

    Holistic education

    Education is the key to unlocking one’s full potential. Ideally, education stimulates one’s thinking and creates the urge to venture into new...

  • August 01, 2018

    A toxic combination

    It does not portend well for a state if its vital organs compete with, or fear each other. A state, like an organism, owes its survival and healthy...

  • July 17, 2018

    Reorienting the media

    The media has permeated our lives so much that now we cannot live without it. It gives us information, entertainment and views on personal and...

  • July 02, 2018

    A repeat of history

    Five years is a long time, particularly when it does not show a discernible pattern and is consumed by sporadic events and countless issues. In...

  • May 16, 2018

    Freedom isn’t free

    A newly-married couple was driving down Mall Road in Murree. One of them was intermittently tossing skins of fruit out on the road. The other –...

  • April 14, 2018

    Rescuing higher education

    If the fundamentals are wrong, window dressing will not save a system from crumbling under its own weight. Our higher education, founded on weak...

  • April 09, 2018

    A moral voice

    Martin Luther King Jr’s voice reverberates across the world even after 50 years of his assassination. The relevance and importance of his voice...

  • March 24, 2018

    Hostages of history

    Can the hawks in India and Pakistan guarantee peace through war? Can India wipe out Pakistan and vice versa? If the US, with the most formidable...

  • February 28, 2018

    The recency error

    Psychologists say that we human beings, by default or by design, make errors in judgement. Some of them are so ingrained in our psyche that we even...

  • February 20, 2018

    Decency in democracy

    A few days ago, the International Development Minister, Lord Bates, resigned after being absent from the British parliament when a question he was...

  • January 24, 2018

    Time to question

    The juggernaut of social media is out there to trample down anything that comes in its way. Religion, individual lives and politics all have to...

  • January 15, 2018

    Beyond coercion

    Social media is flooded with jokes about US President Donald Trump’s unorthodox style of running the most powerful country in the world. As he...

  • November 02, 2017

    The need for governance

    The article, ‘A number game’ published in these pages on October 31, should be an eye-opener for those running the show in the HEC. In...

  • August 29, 2017

    A laggard leader

    US President Trump may have many things in mind to accomplish through his recent tough warnings and erratic leadership style. He wants the world to...

  • August 17, 2017

    The power paradox

    Does power really corrupt people? Why is it that people who acquire power after huge sacrifices succumb to the dictates of power and lose it to...

  • July 12, 2017

    When states fail

    State failure is man-made and not predestined for some nations. States do not fail or fall primarily because they are poor in natural endowments or...

  • March 25, 2017

    Expecting honesty

    Every time there was a village festival, I would visit it with a deep yearning to see the much-talked about fight between a snake and a mongoose...

  • March 08, 2017

    The screen culture

    The digital age has brought in its wake a fundamentally new culture which, among other things, has introduced us to technology and redefined our...