Sajid Opines

  Education is a basic human right. Article 25A of the constitution provides for a free and compulsory education provision for children of five to sixteen years of age. For this, government has established government schools. Although the quality of education being provided in government schools is questionable, however, that is not the focus or discussion here. The more alarming situation is almost 26 million children are out of school. These children have not attended school in life or have been dropped.  That means a whole generation is deprived of the pearls of education. Yet, our elite politicians are preparing for more universities. They should rather utilize their energies on making plans for admitting these children in schools and try to address the obstacles that deprive children of education.

  Pakistan had been the home of millions of Afghan refugees who had fled their home country in different waves. The first major influx of Afghans came due to Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. Similarly, the second major influx came very recently when Kabul fell to Talibans. To host these refugees, Pakistan did receive aid from international organizations. Although there were voices from the society against these refugees due to conflicting social values, but all was good at least at the state level. Things started to change when the relationships between Pakistan and Afghanistan worsened when Taliban government took the reins of power. Initially, Taliban take over was celebrated in some quarters in Pakistan. The arguments being presented to justify the deportation of Afghan refugees are the increase in the number of terrorist attacks in Pakistan. Authorities claim that the people involved in many attacks were Afghan nationals. The second and less talked about argument is the ...

  Petrol prices are updated twice a month in Pakistan and per liter price is same across the country. Much of the inflation in the country is due to rapid increase in the petrol prices in recent months. The fluctuation in petrol prices is determined by various factors. When the per barrel price of petrol increases in the international market, due to whatever reasons, the cost of petrol increases in Pakistan as well. Similarly, when the Pakistani rupee depreciates as compared to dollar, petrol price increases because petrol is dealt in dollars. In the same way, the price of petrol in Pakistan is a mixture of components and the major component is petroleum levy, an indirect tax to raise extra revenue. In the recent past, the government had to remove the subsidy on petrol and increase the petroleum levy due to IMF conditionality. That said, the increase is petrol prices results in huge inflation in general. Obviously, the first impact is direct which is increased petrol price for vehi...

  NOTA (none of the above), a choice given to students, mostly in almost every exam. It gives students a chance to record their answers if they think none of the given options fulfill the answer to the question. Sadly, such an option is not available when one stands on a polling booth. On one hand, it is necessary to vote to lessen the chances of rigging, on the other hand, one does not gets heard if the candidates available on the ballot paper does not deserve the support of the voter. In the absence of such an option, all one can do to manifest one's protest is to vote everyone, so that the vote is cancelled and the ballot paper is wasted. But, doing so only results in canceling of the vote. One does not get heard. In case of NOTA option, more votes on NOTA means people no more trust the current lot of candidates.

 World order is a term used in international relations terminology to denote the aspect of an international system where certain states enjoy the perks of spheres of influence. Historically speaking, before the first world war, the international system was multipolar in nature, which means, there were several states that enjoyed significant spheres of influence. In fact, multipolar world order continued till the end second world war. Afterwards, the world turned bipolar with United States and Soviet Union as major powers. It was after the fall of USSR that the world turned unipolar. However, the US could enjoy unipolarity only for a decade or so. Now, experts believe the world is again turning back to unipolarity.

  Till 1990s, there were only two poles in the global power corridors: The mighty United States and the Soviet Union. But after the disintegration of USSR, there was only one pole left and that was United States. She enjoyed the global supremacy and there was no global power to match its influence. However, soon China was to challenge its authority and influence be it economy, military power, allies or any other diplomatic aspect. China has now a growing influence in Middle East, Africa and even Latin America. With the recent rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and Iran, US's influence in Middle East has further declined. US is making every effort to contain China through new allies in the form of India and renewed agreements with other states. However, for the time being, nothing seems to be working.

  Iran was once an ally of United States of America as long as Iran was taking its line and as long as it was aligned with US foreign policy. But after the Iranian Revolution of 1979, everything has reversed. The revolution was itself based on anti-US sentiment. Before the revolution, the elites of Iran were living a luxurious life while the general public was suffering from various ills including inflation, unemployment etc. Currently, Iran and US are not in good terms and the relations had been down since the revolution. Recently, the reasons for hostility have further increased. Iran backs militant groups in certain Middle Eastern countries which are anti-Israel. US is against the Iranian efforts to get nuclear status. Furthermore, Iran is the only state in Middle East that is extremely against Israel.