Courtesy: The Wire
China has launched the One Belt, One Road (OBOR) Initiative in an attempt to rebuild the ancient Silk Road with proposed land and sea routes to promote infrastructure, trade, and investment in the regions that it will thus connect. The challenge will be to attract private financing to support the official and multilateral ones
Courtesy: Benchill/WikimediaCommons
The national election in Pakistan looks like a game of polarisation, but if democracy is meant to provide some relief and prosperity, all political parties have flopped, bottom up. The field is now wide open, and anything can happen - including a hung parliament.
Courtesy: IIP State/Flickr
The current standoff between the Pakistani Government and the Supreme Court is yet another sign of Pakistan’s instable democracy. Will this lead to another transition to military rule? Or will the pillars of the media and the judiciary be able to bring about a balance?
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Pakistan is unlikely to collapse anytime soon, but the imbalance of power between its civilian and military branches needs to be addressed if it is to become an effective modern state. Washington must stop coddling Pakistan’s military and instead work patiently to support the country’s civilian authorities.
Courtesy: SalmaanTaseer/Flickr
The murder of Salman Taseer , the liberal-minded Governor of Pakistani Punjab, augurs grimly for the country. With the government mired in political turmoil, intelligentsia silenced and religious extremists integrating with the security forces, Pakistan is a state teetering on the brink of collapse.