All Blog Posts (1,919)

Pakistan's Falling Rupee and Foreign Reserves

Pakistani rupee has sharply declined to 109.50 rupees to a US dollar, a loss of nearly 10% of its value in just a few months since Mr. Nawaz Sharif was sworn in as Prime Minister in June, 2013. At the same time, the foreign exchange reserves have plunged to $3.463 billion, a 12-year low since November 2001 when country had foreign reserves of $3.5…

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Added by Riaz Haq on December 2, 2013 at 8:00am — 8 Comments

When Ayub Met JFK in 1961



I was a little child growing up in Karachi when the news of JFK's assassination was received with great shock and extreme sorrow in Pakistan. That was 50 years ago today. Just a couple years earlier in 1961, Pakistan's President Mohammad Ayub Khan had  made a successful state visit to the United States. He was warmly received at Andrews Air Force Base near Washington DC by US President John F. Kennedy and First Lady Mrs. Jacqueline Kennedy. …
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Added by Riaz Haq on November 22, 2013 at 6:49pm — No Comments

India's Tech Exports Figures Over-inflated

A 2005 study by US General Accounting Office (GAO) found that Indian government's figures for software and technology exports to the United States were 20 times higher than the US figures for import of the same from India.



U.S. General Accounting Office looked at the 2003 data showing the United States reported $420 million in unaffiliated imports of BPT (business, professional, and technical) services from India, while India…

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Added by Riaz Haq on November 20, 2013 at 10:55am — 16 Comments

Value Added Agriculture in Pakistan

Livestock revolution enabled Pakistan to significantly raise agriculture productivity and rural incomes in 1980s. Economic activity in dairy, meat and poultry sectors now accounts for just over 50% of the nation's total agricultural output. The result is that per capita value added to agriculture in Pakistan is almost twice as much as that in …

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Added by Riaz Haq on November 14, 2013 at 6:00pm — 16 Comments

Suhail Rizvi Makes $3.8 Billion Gain on Twitter IPO

Suhail Rizvi's 15.6% stake in Twitter was worth $3.8 billion at the end of trading on Thursday when the social media company went public on the New York Stock Exchange.…



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Added by Riaz Haq on November 8, 2013 at 7:36pm — 1 Comment

Ms. Marvel: Pakistani-American Female Superhero to Debut in 2014

The new Ms. Marvel’s real name is Kamala Khan, a 16-year-old Muslim Pakistani-American girl from Jersey City, New Jersey. “Kamala has all of her opportunities in front her and she is loaded with potential, but her parents’ high expectations come with tons of pressure,” says Marvel's press release. “When Kamala suddenly gets…

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Added by Riaz Haq on November 6, 2013 at 9:00pm — 4 Comments

Pakistani-American Education Entrepreneur Osman Rashid

Book rental companies like Silicon Valley based Chegg, founded by Pakistani-American Osman Rashid and Indian-American Aayush Phumbhra, are helping American college students deal with rising textbook costs. Their business is inspired by Netflix movie rental business. Other major contenders in this space are Bookrenter,…

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Added by Riaz Haq on November 4, 2013 at 1:42pm — No Comments

School Enrollment Surge in Pakistan

Malala Yousufzai has inspired about 200,000 children, including 75,000 girls, to enroll in primary schools in Pakistan's Khyber Pukhtunkhwa (KP) province, according to the provincial education minister.



Yousafzai's story "is certainly helping us to promote education in the…

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Added by Riaz Haq on October 22, 2013 at 9:31am — 10 Comments

Pakistani-American Richest Among South Asians in America

With a net worth of $3.8 billion, Shahid Khan tops the Forbes list of the richest Americans of South Asian origin. Overall, Khan ranks 122nd on Forbes 400 list for 2013, up from 179th in 2012.



Born in Pakistani city of Lahore, 63 year old Shahid Khan is a mechanical engineer and a self-made billionaire who built his fortune as a top supplier of bumpers to the auto industry. Khan made history in 2011 by becoming the…

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Added by Riaz Haq on September 25, 2013 at 9:30pm — 4 Comments

Pakistan Quake Sets Off Massive Offshore Gas Deposits

Pakistan is known to have significant natural gas deposits trapped in the form of methane hydrates in sedimentary rocks off the coast of Baluchistan. Tragic as yesterday's earthquake is in terms of loss of human life, it may also have triggered the release of substantial…

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Added by Riaz Haq on September 25, 2013 at 8:30am — 8 Comments

Pakistani-American's High-Tech Company Goes Public in New York

NASDAQ IPO of Silicon Valley's cyber security firm Fire-eye has made its Pakistani-American founder Ashar Aziz worth $430 million at the market close on Friday, according an estimate by Forbes magazine.



The high-tech company priced its initial public offering of 15.2 million…
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Added by Riaz Haq on September 23, 2013 at 6:00pm — 8 Comments

FDI Rises, Loadsheddig Declines in Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's First 100 Days

FDI is up and load-shedding is down during Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's government's first 100 days. However, there has been little progress on resolving fundamental issues such as lack of security, growing budget deficits, high current account deficits and continuing heavy subsidies to the power sector and various public sector enterprises like Pakistan Steel Mills, PIA, Railways, etc.



Foreign Inflows Jump: 



Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's first 100 days in…

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Added by Riaz Haq on September 20, 2013 at 5:30pm — 19 Comments

Is American Exceptionalism Justified?



"My working and personal relationship with President Obama is marked by growing trust. I appreciate this. I carefully studied his address to the nation on Tuesday. And I would rather disagree with a case he made on American exceptionalism, stating that the United States’ policy is “what makes America different. It’s what makes us exceptional.” It is extremely dangerous to encourage people to see themselves as exceptional, whatever the motivation. There are big…
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Added by Riaz Haq on September 13, 2013 at 6:30pm — 17 Comments

Is Jinnah's Two Nation Theory Dead?

Some argue that the Two Nation Theory died with the 1971 partition of Pakistan that led to the separation of East Pakistan and the creation of Bangladesh. Others say that the TNT (Two Nation Theory) was dead the day Pakistan's founder Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah passed away on Sept 11, 1948.…



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Added by Riaz Haq on September 11, 2013 at 8:19pm — 21 Comments

Pakistan Should Divide and Defeat the Taliban

Talks offer by Prime Minister Sharif has caused a significant rift in the  Pakistani Taliban leadership.  While Punjabi Taliban's leader Asmatullah Muawiya has welcomed the offer, leaders of the Pashtun Taliban have rejected it. The split has become more serious with the Pashtun Taliban's decision to remove Muawiya from his position as the leader of the Punjabi Taliban.…





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Added by Riaz Haq on August 29, 2013 at 5:55pm — 7 Comments

Falling Confidence Hits India Hard

Plummeting Indian rupee is the most obvious symptom of the world losing confidence in India. The crisis of confidence is so great that Jim O'Neill, former Goldman Sachs executive whose BRIC acronym made India an attractive investor destination in 2001,  has recently said that “if I were to change it, I would just leave the "C"" in BRIC.…



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Added by Riaz Haq on August 25, 2013 at 8:00am — 5 Comments

Harvard Genetics Research Debunks Hindu Nationalist Myth of Racial Purity



"To keep up the purity of the Race and its culture, Germany shocked the world by her purging the country of the Semitic races -- the Jews. Race pride at its highest has been manifested here. Germany has also shown how well-nigh impossible it is for races and cultures, having differences going to the root, to be…
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Added by Riaz Haq on August 21, 2013 at 8:30am — 17 Comments

Why Only 10 Nobel Prizes Won By 1.5 Billion Muslims To Date?

Are today's Muslims fratricidal low-achievers? Are Muslims unique in their lack of achievement and propensity for fratricidal violence? Are there other religious and racial groups which share these traits with Muslims?



It has become fashionable among Muslims and non-Muslims alike to bash followers of the Islamic faith for their lack of achievement and propensity for fratricidal violence. Some criticize Muslims for having won only 10 Nobel prizes since the prize was launched in…

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Added by Riaz Haq on August 16, 2013 at 9:16pm — 9 Comments

Aamer Liaquat Husain's TV Show Combines Showbiz, Religion and Commerce in Ramadan



"At Christmas there's Santa Claus to give everyone gifts, it's important for Christians. For us Ramadan is a really special time so it's really important to make people happy and reward them." Aamer Liaquat Husain, Popular Televangelist and Show Host of Pakistan's…
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Added by Riaz Haq on August 5, 2013 at 11:30am — 3 Comments

Imran Khan: "Im the Dim" or "Taliban Khan"?

"Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?" asked Joseph N. Welch in responding to the accusatory US Senator Joseph McCarthy in 1950s as part of the Army–McCarthy hearings.…



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Added by Riaz Haq on August 4, 2013 at 8:38am — 4 Comments

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    Blog Posts

    Pakistani Student Enrollment in US Universities Hits All Time High

    Pakistani student enrollment in America's institutions of higher learning rose 16% last year, outpacing the record 12% growth in the number of international students hosted by the country. This puts Pakistan among eight sources in the top 20 countries with the largest increases in US enrollment. India saw the biggest increase at 35%, followed by Ghana 32%, Bangladesh and…

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    Posted by Riaz Haq on April 1, 2024 at 5:00pm

    Agriculture, Caste, Religion and Happiness in South Asia

    Pakistan's agriculture sector GDP grew at a rate of 5.2% in the October-December 2023 quarter, according to the government figures. This is a rare bright spot in the overall national economy that showed just 1% growth during the quarter. Strong performance of the farm sector gives the much needed boost for about …

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    Posted by Riaz Haq on March 29, 2024 at 8:00pm

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