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Genetically modified food-crops: blessing or curse?
There is immense pressure on developing countries to adopt genetically modified (GM) crops in the shortest possible time to supposedly ensure food security and boost agricultural productivity. Being a...
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Unacceptably low criminal responsibility age in Pakistan
Children represent one of the most vulnerable groups in any society. The case of Pakistan is no exception. Some specific measures have been taken in recent years to try and address the numerous...
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Harnessing our remittances
Given the fact that Pakistan has now become the fifth largest recipient of remittances in the developing world, our policymakers need to pay more attention to issues of concern to overseas Pakistanis...
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Pakistan’s unsustainable birth rate
Unsustainable population growth is said to be the underlying cause of varied development challenges. Yet, while rich countries have witnessed a significant decline in fertility rates, the population...
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Vying for more IMF support
Long past are the days when our financial pundits prematurely claimed to have broken the begging bowl of requiring International Monetary Fund (IMF) support. Due to lacklustre international support,...
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Overcoming food wastage amidst starvation
The world which we live in today is full of perturbing disparities. One evident manifestation of such disparities is the fact that both obesity and chronic hunger have become major problems around the...
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Home-based women workers in Pakistan
Women in Pakistan face a seemingly insurmountable array of obstacles which are preventing them from becoming productive and empowered citizens within our society. The situation of multitudes of women,...
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Lacklustre immunisation efforts
The targeting of health workers trying to provide polio vaccination to children in Karachi and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) got much attention around the world. It disrupted UN vaccination campaigns and...
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Can we adequately manage GM crops?
It was the so-called green revolution, which first began to emphasise the use of high-yield seed varieties, along with growing reliance on mechanisation and use of pesticides and fertilisers in...
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Can Pakistan become less dangerous for women?
While sensationalist rankings such as the one by the Thomson Reuters Foundation — which listed Pakistan as the third most dangerous place for women in the world a couple of years ago — are easily...
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Rethinking the role of social protection
Social protection is a policy mechanism which aims to address poverty, protect the vulnerable and make the marginalised more productive members of the economy. It is a particularly favourite strategy...
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Assessing PTI’s vision for education
A few days ago, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) released an education policy vision, which outlines an ambitious plan to address the multiple challenges ailing our education sector. Foremost...
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Acid sales regulation
The horrific act of attacking people with acid has been taking place across different parts of our country for the past several years. While instances of acid attacks occur in major cities, this...
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Education crisis
What a bumpy ride it has been for our first democratically-elected government. Its faltering senior leadership has repeatedly pointed towards conspiracies against democracy to counter growing...
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Addressing water insecurity
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has just released its “Asian Water Development Outlook Report 2013”. This report deserves attention not only to get a quantitative and comprehensive view of...
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Let the teachers teach
Improving the quality of education deserves serious attention in a country like ours, where a significant proportion of children enrolled in school cannot read or write properly. Teachers obviously...
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Will sparing the rod spoil our school children?
Hitting a child at school — or outside it — is banned in many countries which recognise it as an evident form of child abuse. However, in countries like our own, corporal punishment has been rampantly...
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Agrarian reforms — rhetoric and reality
With election fever escalating, it was interesting to note a seminar recently organised by several prominent NGOs entitled “Land and Agrarian Reforms on Political Agenda of Pakistan: Critical Review...
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Environmental issues in election agendas
With election fever building, development organisations have been highlighting their concerns to major political parties. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) organised a dialogue...
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Using manifestos to assess political parties
Manifestos are meant to provide a roadmap highlighting the unique vision of different political parties for tackling major challenges facing particular countries. Political manifestos can thus provide...
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