Editorial Periscope | March 2020 As we were rushing to print, United States, under Trump, managed to achieve something that had bedevilled three administrations and...

Editor GVS examines the unfolding regional drama with US & Afghan Taliban signing a peace agreement in Doha, Modi’s India reverberating with ever new waves of hate and violence against the Muslims, Imran Khan’s government facing more and more difficult economic challenges and fears of coronavirus affecting businesses and public morale across the world -including Pakistan.

Dr. Kamal Monnoo, a public policy expert and a businessman wonders if IMF’s rationale of reining in inflation in Pakistan through high interest rates makes much sense? Monnoo argues that IMF’s model is derived from western markets where the public relies upon housing mortgage and credit for all consumption but does not make much sense for a cash-driven Pakistan.

PTI government’s covert and clandestine move to regulate social media platforms has backfired. The government faces severe reactions and ultimatums from global giants like Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter; GVS examines why Islamabad needs broader consultation with internal and external stakeholders.

Sabiha Abid, an academic at Bahria University, Karachi, describes the contours of the country’s logistics industry and analyses why Pakistan’s logistic industry has remained underdeveloped and what are its implications.

GVS Editors examine the opportunities and challenges CPEC Phase-II presents for Pakistan’s under-developed logistics and argue that unless country modernizes its logistics its dream to transform its economy with the help of CPEC’s phase-II and its SEZ’s will remain incomplete.

NLC, without doubt, has emerged as the key player on Pakistan’s logistic landscape. Editor GVS sits with DG NLC to understand the peculiar evolution of a military run organization that supports both the military and the government but relies upon a competitive market to survive -without any government funding. Can entities like NLC offer a solution to Pakistan’s myriad logistic challenges?

Pakistan is working to develop SEZs like the recent ground-breaking of Allama Iqbal Industrial City by FIEDMC near Faisalabad to benefit from China’s policy of Industrial Relocation. GVS team traces the evolution of SEZs from Ireland in 1950s to China in 1990s.

Climate Change and Water are inextricably linked; a recent World Bank report argues that Pakistan may not be as poor in water resources as it is mismanaged. GVS team analyses the way forward.

Public hanging negatively affects the psycho-social well-being of children by immunizing them to violence. The children who witness violence, such as public hangings, are more likely to reproduce it in later years.

Ahmad Pansota, a young barrister from Lahore, argues that public hangings may traumatize society without achieving anything in terms of deterrence.

In this hard-hitting piece, from GVS Magazine, an advocate Lahore High Court asks liberals of Pakistan that whose dignity matters in the eyes of law? Should courts be worried for the dignity of the pedophile rapist who abducts, torments, disfigures, and kills an innocent child or should they stand for the tortured families and a humiliated society? Difficult questions for a confused society!