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Friday October 04, 2024
Syed Mohibullah Shah
Syed Mohibullah Shah

  • August 26, 2024

    Money talks, but does it listen to women?

    Equal rights and equal opportunities for women have remained a distant dream waiting to be realized in Pakistan. But instead of providing...

  • October 22, 2023

    Wisdom of empowerment

    An internally displaced flood-affected family sits in a tent at a makeshift camp in Jamshoro district of Sindh province on September 26, 2022. —...

  • August 31, 2023

    Shah Latif: Sindh’s celebrated reformer

    The death anniversary of Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai, Sindh’s most celebrated poet-reformer will be observed on Friday in Bhit Shah .Regarding his...

  • August 07, 2023

    Development is for the people: Part - II

    Development processes are meant to empower people and add to their social, cultural, economic and political wellbeing. If people remain...

  • July 31, 2023

    Development is for the people: Part - I

    Every government in Pakistan has made tall claims about development and delivering wonderful benefits to the people in its name; and yet Pakistan...

  • January 10, 2023

    The change constant

    In 1997, in a meeting with the Pakistani prime minister, former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad said that the constant change in...

  • December 16, 2022

    Shah Latif: a liberal democrat

    “Peacocks are dead and the crows are ruling the country”. So lamented Shah Latif as his homeland fell into hands of charlatans piling miseries...

  • December 03, 2022

    Shah Latif’s message of wisdom

    “Learn to distinguish between the flickering light of a night lamp and the shining rays of the rising sun”. So said Shah Latif, the polymath...

  • September 10, 2022

    The genius of Shah Latif

    Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai whose 270th anniversary will be observed tomorrow is known as the great Sufi poet of Sindh. His poetry is recited and...

  • May 20, 2021

    Alone with the burden of history

    The story of Palestine is like the story of no other country. It is spread over millennia and at any time in history, it has always attracted the...

  • May 08, 2021

    Unanswered question of independence

    Was the independence of Pakistan from the British Raj in 1947 an act of de-colonization or merely a communal event? And is it any comfort or...

  • March 08, 2021

    Unfinished business of independence: Part - II

    In the first part of our discussion, we talked about how a modern 20th century democratic state was high-jacked by medievalism 73 years ago and is...

  • March 06, 2021

    Unfinished business of independence

    Part - IAs the state of Pakistan secured freedom from colonialism after WW2, did the people of Pakistan also secure liberation from the inequities...

  • December 07, 2020

    Islands for elite capture?

    As if we didn’t already have enough controversies raging through the length and breadth of our society, another one has been added in the name of...

  • August 10, 2020

    A 3-D model of governance

    If people really mattered, would wolves be allowed to lead the sheep? Or wolves in sheep’s clothing not be recognized and removed before they eat...

  • July 15, 2020

    On the myth of independence

    The writer designed the Board of Investment and the First Women’s Bank.The myth of independence from colonialism has been shattered in many...

  • April 27, 2020

    A case for a presidential system

    To put it simply: change the system of government, if you want to change the fortunes of the country. “Why has Pakistan not realized its...

  • March 27, 2020

    What ails the BOI?

    The Board of Investment has been in the news with declining investment flows and frequent changes, where three chairmen and three secretaries have...

  • September 20, 2019

    Recommendations and committees

    As if the federal government hasn’t already got a plate full of problems – having to revive a stagnant economy, reform broken-down and...

  • April 30, 2019

    Making the economy scream

    How did Pakistan land in such a predicament? For 40 years, Pakistan has been following the same beaten track of finding funds from abroad to finance...

  • April 10, 2019

    The stranglehold of native colonialism

    About 50 countries in Asia and Africa became sovereign, independent nations after Second World War as decolonization by European powers gained...

  • March 24, 2019

    A charter of governance

    ‘Why has Pakistan not realised its potential?” asked Lee Kuan Yew, former prime minister of Singapore, many years ago – after I had made a...

  • January 02, 2019

    Turning ideas into reality

    As Pakistan struggles to address the challenges of our perennial current account deficits, Prime Minister Imran Khan has prioritised four areas to...

  • September 05, 2018

    Non-development and discretion

    The most welcome decision emerging from Prime Minister Imran Khan’s first cabinet meeting was to put an end to discretionary fund allocations,...

  • August 22, 2018

    A new ministry for Pakistan

    Were the recent elections a peaceful revolt of the silent majority against the incompetence and greed that had become the hallmark of a...

  • August 11, 2018

    Relinquishing dependency

    As Imran Khan-led PTI government prepares to take charge of the country, it is likely to face several challenges. Although many will need to be...

  • August 02, 2018

    Reforms not politics

    The victory of Imran Khan’s PTI in the July 25 elections has fostered hope that Pakistan may have turned the corner. People believe that the age...

  • July 07, 2018

    Pakistan: a case of de-industrialisation

    Industrialisation of economies is the sine qua non of developed countries. In fact, the distinction between the developed and developing countries...

  • June 06, 2018

    In the East lies inspiration

    A survey at the recent meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos showed that 60 percent of the businessmen and political leaders attending the...

  • May 17, 2018

    A clash of cultures

    Samuel P Huntington may have talked about a worldwide clash of civilisations, but we have a clash of cultures going on right here within our...

  • May 06, 2018

    Determining development

    In today’s globalised world when capital can freely move across national boundaries, any country can attract as much investment as it needs. The...

  • April 23, 2018

    Unfinished business

    Was the struggle to gain independence from colonialism meant to open up opportunities denied to people by dismantling the colonial structure and its...

  • April 11, 2018

    Politics without governance

    The governance of a democratic country is more than a matter of mere politics. Like economics, politics has an important role to play in society....

  • March 28, 2018

    From discipline to development

    The year was 1979 and the place was Cambridge, Massachusetts. All seats in the large hall were quickly filled up, as were aisles and the area in...

  • January 18, 2018

    No investment, no exports

    Our trade statistics over the last few years continue to paint a grim picture of the structural issues in the country’s trade and industrial...

  • February 05, 2017

    Gathering clouds over Asia

    “Poor Mexico. So far from God, so close to the US,” said the president of Mexico. No, it was not its current president, nor was this...

  • January 29, 2017

    Makers and takers

    The British newspaper, The Independent, shook the world’s conscience in 2014 when it published the results of research carried out by ONE...

  • January 15, 2017

    In the age of uncertainty

    As the uni-polar world begins to weaken and the multi-polar order struggles to define itself, the world is gradually entering the age of...

  • December 24, 2016

    The resurgence of a multi-polar world

    Over the last 100 years, the world has lived through four different world orders. It has arrived at the same multi-polar order that prevailed in the...

  • November 17, 2016

    Main street vs Wall Street

    No pundit had predicted it – not even by a long shot. Donald Trump has won the US presidential election on the wave of an anti-globalisation...

  • November 07, 2016

    Trust – but verify

    The division between rich and poor nations is neither god-given nor does it have divine sanction. It is neither determined by rich deposits of...

  • October 22, 2016

    The winners and losers of globalisation

    Anger and frustration is sweeping across large swaths of population in rich and developed countries against the free movement of capital and labour...

  • October 05, 2016

    Pakistan’s near-abroad

    We are so near in so many ways – sharing history, geographical proximity, faith, culture, commercial and family relations for centuries. Such...

  • September 17, 2016

    Resetting our energy chessboard

    The writer designed the Board of Investment and the First Women’s Bank. Bereft of synergy with indigenous sources, our energy chessboard has...

  • August 31, 2016

    Law, politics and governance

    “Tell me”, said former prime minister of Singapore Lee Kwan Yew during a meeting with this write, “why has Pakistan not realised...

  • August 17, 2016

    Why makes this the Asian century?

    Two hundred years after losing its preeminent position as the centre of world economy, Asia has regained it. The largest and most populous...

  • July 27, 2016

    A new paradigm of governance

    For too long, other countries have been overtaking Pakistan while our children have been leaving their homeland in search of a better future abroad....

  • July 16, 2016

    Whose system is it anyway?

    Like misaligned medical prescription, which causes serious side effects instead of addressing the original ailments of the patient, our system of...

  • June 14, 2015

    Politics of malgovernance

    Let us first take the mystery out of malgovernance. The principal ingredients of malgovernance of a country are two: the inefficiency of its state...

  • May 28, 2015

    Rescuing the state

    Although the state as a political institution evolved over ten thousand years ago in response to human needs, for long periods of time –...