The contemporary era- that is characterized by an increasingly complex world order- has seen a paradigm shift from holy wars to wars that have geo-economic and geo-political reasons at their core. Even the religious wars have other issues at their heart.
WRITTEN BY: Andrew Korybko
The frozen Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is one of Eurasia’s geopolitical time bombs just like Kashmir.
Pakistan is the only country in the world that doesn’t recognise the independence of Armenia. The South Caucasus country objectively exists and is a member of the UN, but Islamabad’s stance is a principled one practiced as a form of protest in response to Yerevan’s egregious human rights violations against the Azeris of Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh region. There are some very good reasons why Pakistan doesn’t recognise Armenia, and they’ll be touched upon briefly in this piece.
The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is at the core of Pakistan’s decision. This war lasted from 1988-1994 and remains frozen to this day. The Armenians of Azerbaijan’s then-Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast (region) wanted to unite with their ethnic brethren in nearby Armenia in the twilight days of the USSR. This was a direct consequence of the widespread explosion of pent-up nationalist sentiment in the Soviet Union triggered by Gorbachev’s failed experiment with glasnost (“openness”).
When we talk about rights and freedom, instead of going into the specified, limited, to the point reasons and responsibilities, both terms are taken into a very broader aspect which too can create, chaos, disharmony, hatred, racism and many more small but yet important issues. There is a very common and general rule of rights and freedom; “my right stops when it infringes upon your rights”. Usually both these terms are taken into one sense but when we look closely, both these terms are so way part. What is a right? A right is fair, equitable, upright, honorable, honest, moral ethical, lawful and legal well-being and practice of an individual. Whereas when you talk about freedom it represents a whole of a lot and it’s independent living.
Governance implies control, direction, and rule with authority or administers laws to govern a system to achieve certain objectives. Good Governance implies running administration according to the defined laws to achieve the objective of promoting the welfare of the people in a democratic oriented order. Bad governance means departing from the norms of laws and subjecting system of administration to whims, idiosyncrasies of the rulers to achieve certain ulterior motives at the cost of national interests.
The hallmark of great nations is that they learn from their past experience to become wiser in conducting their current and future affairs. Another distinctive feature of such nations is that they try to understand the emerging long-term trends to identify new challenges, and plan for the future so as to take maximum advantage of the opportunities and avoid the pitfalls that may lie ahead.
On the other hand, the nations on the trajectory of decay and ultimate oblivion neither learn from the past nor have the inclination to look ahead into the future to plan for their security, progress and welfare. All it lacks in the context of Pakistan; socially, economically and politically as well.
Five ways to improve development assistance
So much is written and said about foreign aid that it has become difficult to contribute meaningfully to the debate about whether it is effective. But if we are charting our fates as citizens of a crowded, fragile planet, then any honest assessment must conclude that progress has been made, whether in terms of child survival or literacy or access to basic sanitation. Still, profound social disparities exist; so too does extreme poverty. And the prospects of those living on less than two dollars a day remain grim. With the stakes as high as they are, the need to challenge the assumptions we make about aid is paramount. Myths and mystifications about aid persist. Whether we speak of feedback loops or best practices — or, perhaps, simply better practices — we have a long way to go.
Despite agreements on aid effectiveness reached in Rome, Paris, Accra, and Busan over the last decade, 80 percent of aid from major bilateral and multilateral donors to fragile countries still bypasses the systems of local public institutions. But the aspiration to improve the lives of those living in extreme poverty through better public health, public education, and public works by definition requires public-sector capacity.
Certain legal circles are showing concerns over the proactive role our judiciary is playing in restoring fundamental rights to the common man, and taking cognizance of corrupt practices in institutions of public importance. This proactive role which is termed as judicial activism has been defined in Black’s Law Dictionary as, “a philosophy of law-making whereby judges allow their personal views about public policy, among other factors, to guide their decisions.” Thus according to them any order or decision which is coloured by a judge’s subjective mind rather than the literal application of law would amount to a legal aberration and is therefore likely to cause miscarriage of justice. But the fact remains that when a judge is engaged in the task of sifting truth from falsehood, his objective and subjective faculties are simultaneously at work, and in respect of most of the questions before him, the bare literal application of law would neither be adequate nor desirable.
Environmental issues in Pakistan have been disturbing the balance between economic development and environmental protection
As a big importer of renewable natural resources and a large consumer of fossil fuels, Pakistan’s Ministry of Environment takes responsibility to conserve and protect the environment; however unfortunately there are many challenges. While we grow more than 8 percent in GDP and create economic opportunities, this increase adds growing stress and implications on the environment. The constant growth in population is another massive challenge. As we grow economically, we have to decide that we achieve a better quality of life. At the end of the day, when we have more money but our quality of life suffers and we can’t breathe and drink pure water; then it is not worth it.
Recent studies reveal rising inflation and unemployment creating high misery for people. Fuelled by these adverse reports, food insecurity, poverty and malnutrition problems had again momentarily hit national headlines, as they periodically do before being quickly displaced by political scandals.
Measuring these problems in Pakistan is made difficult by competing concepts, definitions and measurement approaches. Food security represents “regular access to sufficient and affordable nutritious food”. The 2011 National Nutritional Survey estimated nearly 60pc Pakistanis to be food insecure. Around 30pc had never experienced hunger but were not consuming quality nutritious food. In almost 20pc families, adults experienced some hunger.
1.1) In modern age of global integrating politics, Muslim world is fast disintegrating on sectarian lines.
1.2) Sectarian decision has now exacerbated by taking ethnic and intra-sect forms posing direct treat to the stability of the Muslim and the wider world.
Essay means ‘attempt’ to translate your ideas into words. There is a myth before writing actual essay we must be well versed in the hard-core knowledge of contemporary topics, but the reality is; it is skill which can be learned from practice only. Now the BIG QUESTION is how to practice it, especially in case of non-availability of evaluator, for this I recommend better to start from scratch through the 3-body essay, i.e. introduction, body and conclusion. You can find this sort of short essay on daily basis from daily diaries (DAWN, EXPRESS TRIBUNE or THE NEWS INTERNATIONAL) in form of editorials and opinions. The only way to learn it at your own is to paraphrase it on daily basis. I guarantee this will serve the purpose well. Through this regular exercise your expression will improve, you will learn new vocabulary words and the usage of words both in connotative and denotative. You must consult one basic English grammar book (I consulted ‘To the point English by Mian Aftab’ in the beginning later on I consulted ‘Exploring the world of English by Sadaat ), while practicing you must know the basic rules of grammar. The bottom line is; one paragraph on daily basis – the mixture of theory and practice- can be handy to horn your English writing skill.