Category: At What Cost
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Blaming the Founding Fathers for Our Mistakes: Case of Pakistan
[To understand the context of this post, please read At What Cost! Why Compute Economic Costs of Faulty Political Decisions] In the cozy environment of our drawing rooms, we often see the self styled intellectuals belong to the ilk of Hasan Nisar trying their best to put the blame of shortcomings of our nation on to…
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Why Pakistani Democracies are a Sham? Costs of Controlling a Democracy from Outside
Why we had only sham democracies in Pakistan? This post identifies eight fundamental tests on which our democracies fail to be called a real democracy. It identifies the forces and the compulsions that did not let them to mature into a real democracy. We will discuss the costs of sham democracies in a later post.…
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Costs of General Zia’s Dictatorship in Pakistan
[To understand the context of this post, please read At What Cost! Why Compute Economic Costs of Faulty Political Decisions] This post lists major cost elements of General Zia’s Dictatorial 11-year rule from 1977-1988. It identifies five major cost categories: costs related to ideology of Pakistan, economic costs, governance costs, foreign policy costs and costs of…
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Costs of Sham Democracratic Governments in Pakistan
[To understand the context of this post, please read At What Cost! Why Compute Economic Costs of Faulty Political Decisions] Sham Democracy vs Real Democracy: Discusses the question of whether we ever had a real democracy in Pakistan, and why our democracies have been sham. In this post we look at the costs of having a…
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Are Generals Qualified to Make Long Term Strategy: Costs of Strategic Failures of Military Dictators
Is it possible for Generals to do long term strategic planning? What is meant by the famous quote “War is much too serious a matter to be left to the military men (or generals)”. This quote is by Clemenceau who was a French statesman who served twice as the Prime Minister of France and was the statesman who led…
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Anti-National Language Policy leads to Rule by Rich and Corrupt Elites
One of the major reasons that has led to the continuous deterioration of economy and culture in Pakistan can be attributed to the anti-national language policies by the status-quo troika. This status-quo troika consisted of rich ruling elites in the bureaucracy that quickly joined hand with the establishment and the landed aristocracy during the rule…
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Progress vs Pollution and Development vs Destruction of Nature? Costs of Progress and Development
Is progress same as pollution? Is destruction of nature same as “development”? I believe progress means progress of humanity and progress in our quality of life as a whole. If progress means pollution of pristine waters of lakes, aquifers, streams, rivers and oceans with industrial waste, chemicals, insecticides, refuse, plastics, and other garbage that renders…
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Rememberance of My Father and Loved Ones: Every day is Father’s Day and Mother’s Day
Our love for the father gives us support for every day of our lives for a long time even after they have gone for years. Matriculation of my father Ahsan Hyder: From L-R: Sitting: Syed Ikram Hyder(great-grandfather), Syed Ab Ghani Hyder (grandfather) Standing: Sultan Hyder (Rummi)-Rasheed Hyder- Ahsan Hyder-Zaheer Hyder-Jarrar Hyder Prof Dr Zaeem Jaffery…
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Remembering East Pakistan: We look before and after, And pine for what is not
[To understand the context of this post, please read At What Cost! Why Compute Economic Costs of Faulty Political Decisions] It is early 1970s. I am in 4th grade and in Islamabad. One day I saw my father with tears in his eyes holding a letter in his hands that he had received from Bangladesh from…
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Small is Beautiful: Why Small Businesses should Replace Big Businesses (A Case Study of Rickshaws vs Buses)
Major source of congested roads: Minibuses/vans not rickshaws Have you noticed a marked reduction of the concentration of minibuses often called yellow devils on the roads of Karachi lately? My heart fills with a feeling of comfort when I see these yellow devils and anticipate their dwindling fate, when I see them surviving with mostly empty seats, and…
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How West Teaches History (through Movies) and How We have Forgotten: A Nation that has No History, has no Future !
A nation that has no history, has no future! Our ignorance about our history, our culture, our sensibilities are astounding. Recent protests about Geo’s morning show speaks volume about the “insensitivity” arising from this ignorance, especially the ignorance of the media people. A few minutes of listening to the FM channels would convince you that…
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Capitalist Transactions Replacing Traditions and Values from Istanbul to Makkah
Free Water Fountain on National Mall Last month during transit for a few hours at the Istanbul airport on my way to Tblisi, Georgia, I was struck by the “transactional” nature of every interaction at the airport. I was surprised that there were no drinking water fountains available at one of the busiest airports of the world.…
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Plight of Sugarcane Growers: The Economic Costs of Regulatory Barriers for Small Businesses and Entrepreneurs
During the winter holidays, often extending from mid of December to mid of January, I often drive to Islamabad and back. The biggest nuisance on the National Highway as you pass through the upper Sind and lower Punjab are the miles and miles of queued tractor trolleys with over loaded sugarcane. The sugarcane is loaded…
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Of Achars, Chutneys and Halwas: A Lifestyle Getting Lost Through Branding and Mass Production
Mangoe Flowers: Bur Yesterday I heard the Koel’s cu-ckoo and I could hear my nani jan (grandmother) calling from the past saying that this is spring time. There is now “bur” (small flowers) on the mango trees. “Remember Irfan, you need to go to the market to get the kai-rees (unripe mangoes)”. Planning for the annual…
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Of Jungles, Streams, Berries and Wild Pink Flowers: Costs of Commercialization of Islamabad
Of Jungles, Streams, Berries and Wild Pink Flowers: Fragrant Memories of Islamabad that Was This December I was in Islamabad. Going through the town brought a pang in my heart as memories of 40-45 years ago came flooding down. Those were the times when kids like us had immense open spaces with wild growth to…
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Get Pakistan out of this quagmire: Economic Cost of War on Terror for Pakistan
[To understand the context of this post, please read At What Cost! Why Compute Economic Costs of Faulty Political Decisions] Impact of War on Terror on Pakistan’s economy [This post is copied from Pakistan Today and was written by Omer Zaheer Meer, Tuesday, 15 Oct 2013] History is evident that wars had been and will always be costly both…
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Whither Writ of the State? Costs of Breakdown of Law and Constitution in Pakistan
[To understand the context of this post, please read At What Cost! Why Compute Economic Costs of Faulty Political Decisions] Whither Writ of the State? Costs of Corruption and Nepotism in Today’s Rangeela Shahi Daur I often see reference to the “writ of state” in talk shows and in the writings of columnists in newspapers invoked…
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At What Cost! Fazle Hasan of IBA and our Computation of Economic Costs
[To understand the context of this post, please read At What Cost! Why Compute Economic Costs of Faulty Political Decisions] At What Cost! Fazle Hasan of IBA and our Computation of Economic Costs Fazle Hasan in his office 1981 Mr Fazle Hasan (1939-2006) was teaching us Financial Management in 1986 at IBA. During each class session,…