Afghans are not known for abiding by treaties and agreements, they are also poor performers in handling intra-Afghan negotiations. Both the Taliban and the US troops are accusing each other of violating the peace agreement and the dysfunctional Afghan government is playing spoilers. May be implementation of the agreement is more messy than the process…
Vegetables constitute an integral component of our cropping pattern but the increasing pressure on food and cash crops has limited the area under vegetables to about 3.1% of the total cropped area. Because they have a shorter maturity period vegetables fit well in most farming systems. Vegetables provide proteins, minerals and vitamins required for human…
Context The Core versus Peripheral Islamic world theory is one of the key themes Politact has been following for over a decade. One of the premises of this construct is that the Core of the Islamic world represented mainly by the Arab Gulf states, including Iraq, Syria, and Jordan have been gradually losing influence. On…
Pakistan is passing through the most critical time in history due to the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19). During the past few months, the government has decided to invest its full potential to fight with this health challenge. The outbreak of coronavirus in Wuhan city and its spread outside of China has posed a serious…
Pakistan is climatically capable of growing fruits easily and in abundance. Evidence for the growth of fruit and vegetables in the subcontinent has been provided from ancient times, citriculture is known from the Indus valley for some 4000 years. The climatic diversity is such that it allows cultivation of nearly all types of fruit temperate,…
The Ehsaas program, which falls under the Poverty Alleviation and Social Safety Division, officially started last year. This kicked into effect as a lifesaver to the country just as the pandemic hit and cases surged throughout the country. The efficiency of the material purpose of the program was soon to be tested in practical terms…
Grown mostly in the two provinces of Punjab and Sindh, the former Pakistan’s cash crop production accounts for 79% and the latter 20% of the nation’s cotton growing land. The fourth largest producer of cotton in the world, more importantly Pakistan has the third largest spinning capacity after China and India in Asia with thousands…
As my six year old nephew in New York logged onto the tablet set up by his parents for his online school classes, I wondered at the pre-emptive measures that had been taken for the sake of education and certainly for the sake of normalcy during the onset of the pandemic. A beautiful example of…
Produced from sugarcane sugar constitutes Pakistan’s second largest agro-based industry after textiles ranking fifth in the world in cane acreage and ninth in sugar production. An important cash crop in our country. Sugarcane is an important source of income for the farming community employing over 1.5 million people. This includes management, technology experts, skilled and unskilled…
Extreme flooding and drought in recent years has sparked repeated national emergencies in Pakistan, which depends on the Indus for 90% of its food production. In 2010 and 2013 heavy flooding destroyed the harvest and the homes of millions of people while displacing them for months. From February to April 2019, widespread flash flooding affected…
