Pakistan's national and human security challenges have never been so pervasive. A war along the northern borders and relentless insurgency threatens the writ of the state, pitting law-enforcement agencies against people. Vested-interest groups exploit and deepen existing polarisation on ethnic, sectarian, political and religious fronts, resulting in carnage. These problems...

The brutal assassination of nine grass roots level health workers in Pakistan, who were involved in a door-to-door immunization campaign in an attempt to secure children from crippling polio, adds an unprecedentedly grave dimension to the ongoing carnage in Pakistan. Pakistan's parliament was quick in passing a unanimous resolution and...

The Bill "to provide for the establishment of a Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan" was enacted into law last week. The creation of a federal drug regulatory authority was the right decision, both in the international as well as domestic contexts. Internationally, after World Trade Organization (WTO) agreements, it has...

The concept of development, through which governments view social policy in environments where capitalism is the mode of social organization, may be up for a major rethink, globally. This year, policy signals at agenda-setting global convening and major publications seem to be heralding new directions. But in each of these,...

The World Economic Forum's ability to convene the highest operating public and private actors with equal ease is now well established and is evidenced each year at its annual forum in Davos. This niche creates the space for stakeholder engagement in the current global economic environment where global solutions can...

The current floods in Pakistan once again have put enormous pressure on Pakistan's creaking health system - compacting on last year's floods, which were themselves described as unprecedented at the time. These have been major blows for our people - and our country, which seems to suffer more than most...

At the recent meeting of heads of Commonwealth states, Australia put polio squarely on the table with a 54 million dollar promise. This adds to the existing pledges towards the disease eradication goal, which has collectively received more resources than any other global health intervention, to date. There is one...