Research Assistant
Zahra Niazi is a Researcher at the Centre for Aerospace & Security Studies (CASS), Islamabad, Pakistan. She holds a Masters in Development Studies, with majors in Peace, Conflict and Development, from the National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST), Pakistan. Her research interests include Sustainable Development, Peace and Development, and Development Economics.
The war on Gaza since early October last year has had a limited impact on global oil prices, unlike the spike in oil prices that followed the war in Ukraine, as neither Israel nor the besieged Gaza Strip are significant oil producers.
For context, global Brent crude oil prices increased briefly after the initial violence in early October
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The tide of outward migration from Pakistan surged considerably over the past two years (2022 and 2023), with several millions opting to emigrate with the aim of securing better prospects overseas. For instance, the number of skilled, highly skilled, and highly qualified worker migrants from Pakistan alone increased to 0.77 million, compared to 0.26 million in 2020 and 2021 and 0.48 million during 2018 and 2019, the two years before the pandemic.
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Whether democracy is a precondition for development is a debate that continues to stimulate scholarly reflection till the present day. While this intellectual reflection is praiseworthy, the discussion could have been settled long ago when Amartya Sen redefined the concept of ‘development’ as ‘freedom’– a notion that strongly resonates with the human spirit.
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In the wake of Israel’s ongoing genocidal aggression in Gaza, Pakistanis have rallied in solidarity with the Palestinians in large numbers through street demonstrations, digital activism, and by responding to the calls for a boycott of products belonging to companies complicit in Israel’s violation of Palestinian rights.
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In the book Public Value and the Post-Pandemic Society, author Dr Usman W. Chohan discusses the ‘post-pandemic’ era through the prism of Public Value (PV) scholarship. The first section of the book, titled ‘Changes and Transitions,’ examines the notions of value transition and value stability in the context of the post-COVID era and discusses the two most salient manifestations of challenges to the post-pandemic society, including stagflation and the great resignation.
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2023 began on a dismal note for Pakistan’s economy, as foreign exchange reserves were fast-depleting, remittances and exports were declining, the rupee was depreciating, industrial production was decreasing, and inflation surged – resulting from a confluence of multiple internal and external factors. In the months leading up to June, newspaper and media headlines continued to warn that the country’s economic crisis could soon morph into a sovereign default without a bailout loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
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