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Wikileaks on The Gangs of Karachi

Here are some excerpts from Wikileaks on the "Gangs of Karachi":



US embassy cable - 09KARACHI138

SINDH - THE GANGS OF KARACHI

Identifier: 09KARACHI138

Origin: Consulate Karachi

Created: 2009-04-22 11:52:00









Summary: The police in Karachi are only one of several armed…

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Added by Riaz Haq on September 8, 2011 at 5:30pm — 41 Comments

Can Pakistani Diaspora Help in Pakistan's Development?

Nearly 5 million Pakistani emigrants make up the world's 7th largest disapora, according to the World Bank Factbook 2011. Adding the foreign-born children of these Pakistani emigres to the tally pushes the total figure up to about 7 million. The top five nations that the Pakistani diaspora calls home include the United Kingdom (1.2 million), The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (1.2 million), the… Continue

Added by Riaz Haq on September 3, 2011 at 7:03pm — 33 Comments

Growing Nexus of Crime and Politics in Karachi

Former Sindh Home Minister Zulfiqar Mirza's dramatic August 28 press conference with a copy of the Holy Quran in his hand has become the center of news media attention in recent days.







Following this highly emotion-charged press conference which was carried live by almost all of the mainstream TV channels, Mirza has been hailed as a hero by some of the… Continue

Added by Riaz Haq on August 31, 2011 at 7:00pm — 33 Comments

Fewer Pakistanis Than Indians Drop Out of Schools and Colleges

Pakistanis spend more time in schools and colleges and graduate at a higher rate than their Indian counterparts in 15+ age group, according to a report on educational achievement by Harvard University researchers Robert Barro and Jong-Wha Lee.



In a recent Op Ed titled "Preparing the Population for a Modern Economy" published by Pakistan's Express…

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Added by Riaz Haq on August 23, 2011 at 9:30pm — 7 Comments

Pakistan Independence Day Seminar in Silicon Valley

Independence Day 2011 seminar was organized by Pakistani-American Cultural Center in San Jose on August 14, 2011. It featured several speakers representing multiple generations of Pakistani-Americans living in Silicon Valley.







The…

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Added by Riaz Haq on August 20, 2011 at 9:30pm — 2 Comments

Pakistan's PPP GDP for 2010-11 at $555 Billion

Nominal per capita incomes in both India and Pakistan stand at just over $1200 a year, according to figures released in May and June of 2011 by the two governments. This translates to about $3100 per capita in terms of PPP (purchasing power parity). Using a more generous PPP correction factor of 2.9 for India as claimed by… Continue

Added by Riaz Haq on August 19, 2011 at 5:30pm — 5 Comments

Happy 64th Birthday, Pakistan!

“You tend to hear the worst 5% of the Pakistan story 95% of the time.”


The above is a quote attributed to Pakistani Entrepreneur Monis Rahman in Aug 8, 2011 Forbes Magazine story titled “Want to Start a Company in the World's Sixth-Most Populous Country? Time to Move to Pakistan”.



On Pakistan's 64th birthday today, there is a lot of coverage by the traditional media focused on "the worst 5% of the Pakistan story". To help my readers piece… Continue

Added by Riaz Haq on August 14, 2011 at 2:00pm — 2 Comments

Pakistani Jazz Album Tops American and British Music Charts

Pakistan's Sachal Studios Orchestra, named after Sindhi Sufi Saint Sachal Sarmast (1739–1829), has topped iTunes jazz charts in America and Britain with its interpretation of Dave Brubeck's Take Five that blends classical violins with sitars, tablas and other South Asian instruments, according to British media… Continue

Added by Riaz Haq on August 9, 2011 at 8:20pm — 14 Comments

Powerful Oligarchs of South Asia

India is the world's third biggest and the fastest rising oligarchy with 17.2% of its GDP amassed by its 55 billionaires. India's system of governance has some of the worst of features of democracy and oligarchy in which the democratically elected politicians are bought off by the richest Indians, and both groups further enrich themselves at the expense of the vast majority of ordinary Indians. The biggest Indian… Continue

Added by Riaz Haq on August 6, 2011 at 9:00am — 10 Comments

Production and Sales of Cars and Televisions Rose in Pakistan in 2010-11

First 9 months of fiscal 2010-2011 saw production of television sets jump 28.6% and automobile production increase by 14.6%, according to Economic Survey of Pakistan 2010-2011. From July 2010 to March 2011, production of cars, light commercial vehicles and two and three wheelers grew by 16.4%, 20.5% and 12.6% respectively. These figures… Continue

Added by Riaz Haq on August 2, 2011 at 8:58am — 26 Comments

Rise of Oligarchy in India and Pakistan

Is India an oligarchy controlled by its 55 recently-minted billionaires whose wealth equals one-sixth of their country's GDP?



The answer to this question came when, as part of India's 2G scandal revelations, the Billionaire businessman Mukesh Ambani was quoted as… Continue

Added by Riaz Haq on July 27, 2011 at 10:11pm — 5 Comments

Pakistan Empowers Rural Women Through Government Land Grants

The PPP-led Sindh government is granting over 212,864 acres of government-owned agriculture land to landless peasants in the province.



Over half of the farm land being given is prime nehri (land irrigated by canals) farm land. About 70 percent of the … Continue

Added by Riaz Haq on July 8, 2011 at 10:54pm — No Comments

Pakistan Ahead of India in Innovation Efficiency

While Pakistan fares badly, ranking 103 on a list of 125 nations, on CII-INSEAD Global Index of Innovation for 2011, it is included among the top 10 countries for the Innovation Efficiency sub-Index. These countries are Côte d’Ivoire, Nigeria, China, Pakistan, Moldova, Sweden, Brazil, Argentina, India, and Bangladesh.







This places Pakistan in 4th place on… Continue

Added by Riaz Haq on July 3, 2011 at 11:00am — 1 Comment

Impact of Declining Muhajir Birth Rates on Pakistan's Demographics and Politics

Why did the Muttahida Qaumi Movement(MQM) react so strongly to the PPP's aggressive stance in the recent Azad Kashmir elections that it decided to pull out of the ruling coalition? Why has the MQM leadership replaced "Mohajir" with "Muttahida" in its name? Why is the MQM so eager to expand its base from the exclusively Urdu-speaking urban Sindh to other provinces and regions?…



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Added by Riaz Haq on July 2, 2011 at 9:59am — 2 Comments

Huma Abedin Weiner in Twitter Photo Scandal

New York's Jewish-American Congressman Anthony Weiner's scandal has brought unwanted attention to his wife Huma Abedin, a 34 year-old Michigan-born Muslim-American woman with an Indian-American father and a Pakistani-American mother. The Congressman is alleged to have sent a lewd photo of his crotch from his Twitter account to a 21-year-old female student in Seattle, Washington.…



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Added by Riaz Haq on June 2, 2011 at 9:00pm — 3 Comments

Hookah Smoking Health Risks Worry Americans

Since the hookah (shisha or water pipe) made its debut in North America a few decades ago among immigrant communities, it has continued to gain in popularity and now found its way to hundreds of college campuses all over the continent.



Most of the hookah tobacco used in the United States is imported from the UAE, Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia; as a way of catering to Western tastes, tobacco manufacturers are introducing flavors like kiwi, watermelon and blackberry. Handcrafted pipes… Continue

Added by Riaz Haq on May 31, 2011 at 11:34pm — No Comments

Is There a Culture of Corruption in Pakistan?

Rampant corruption is believed to be a major factor impeding economic development in Pakistan and many other developing nations.



Is this corruption and lawlessness rooted in the absence of adequate law enforcement, or the lack of independent judges? Or is it a national culture of corruption that ranks such nations among the most corrupt in the world on… Continue

Added by Riaz Haq on May 30, 2011 at 9:00am — 13 Comments

Pakistan's NADRA Excels in IT Services

All the hype about Indian IT sector makes it hard to believe that it is Pakistan, not India, which has widely deployed biometric identification technology to issue multi-purpose national ID cards and e-passports to its citizens. Is this just another case of the proverbial shoemaker's children going barefoot?







In fact, Pakistan is among the first few countries… Continue

Added by Riaz Haq on May 26, 2011 at 4:19pm — 28 Comments

World Bank Finds Indians Poorer Than Pakistanis

A new multi-dimensional measure of poverty confirms that there is grinding poverty in resurgent India. It highlights the fact that just eight Indian states account for more poor people than the 26 poorest African countries combined, according to media reports. The Indian states, including Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh , Orissa, Rajasthan,…

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Added by Riaz Haq on May 20, 2011 at 5:00pm — 2 Comments

Pakistan's Gas Reserves

Reports of new gas reserves of 40 trillion cubic feet (upped to 105 TCF in 2013 by US EIA) are specially welcome at this moment in Pakistan when it is facing a very serious and growing energy crisis. The…

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Added by Riaz Haq on May 15, 2011 at 10:30am — 25 Comments

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    Pakistan Needs to Address Its Significant Data Quality Challenges

    Policy-makers need data to formulate good policies. Good data produced by government agencies can be expected to lead to good policies and desirable outcomes. But data collection and statistical analyses require adequate methodologies and resources. Unfortunately, Pakistan's data quality gets a "C" grade by international agencies like the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Clearly the country faces significant data quality challenges.  These challenges range from estimation of the size…

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    Posted by Riaz Haq on July 7, 2026 at 9:30am — 8 Comments

    Pakistan Electricity Consumption Up 21% in Just Two Years

    Pakistan is experiencing soaring demand for electricity across all of the sectors of its economy. The new demand is being met by rapidly growing deployment of distributed solar, estimated at 38 GW as of June, 2025. In 2025, 44% of solar deployment was residential, followed by industry (26%), agriculture (21%) and commercial users (9%). The expansion of distributed solar has enhanced electrification across the economy, lifting Pakistan's electrification rate to 21.7%…

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    Posted by Riaz Haq on June 30, 2026 at 1:30pm — 7 Comments

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