While Karachi’s stock market has performed well this year, there are plenty of profitable and liquid opportunities available else where for investors in a position to invest in international markets. An example is the American Depository Receipts (ADRs) of Chinese and Indian companies traded on New York stock exchange in particular, and ADRs of emerging markets in general.
State of Pakistan
“Egotism is the anesthetic that dulls the pain of stupidity.” “Ink of the scholar is holier than the blood of the martyr.”
Learning from History: TIME cover story of January 15, 1979: Crescent of Crisis
“What happened to the Shah’s once very real support? Sums up a senior American businessman with many years’ experience in Iran: He lost contact with the peasants. He lost control of inflation. He lost contact with the mullahs. He lost control of SAVAK [the secret police]. He lost control of his own family and all the outrageous deals they made for personal profit. All he had left was the army.” So wrote Time magazine in its cover story of January 15, 1979 issue.The story is relevant even today and offers great insights for all those who wonder what Pakistan should do. There is however, a major difference this time compared to 1979. Back then, Pakistan was fighting an American war and was pitied against the Soviets. This time it may be in for a shock. Fighting 
Setting the record straight: US covert assistance to Afghan mujahideen started before the soviet invasion in 1979
Photo [left] Zbigniew Brzezinski, President Jimmy Carter’s National Secuirty Adviser inspects a gun during his trip to Khyber Pass, Pakistan, February 1980.
President Carter authorizes covert aid for opponents of the Communist government in Afghanistan. Zbigniew Brzezinski, Carter’s National Security Adviser, will state in 1998, “According to the official version of history, CIA aid to the mujaheddin began… after the Soviet army invaded Afghanistan… But the reality, secretly guarded until 1998, is completely otherwise: Indeed, it was July 3, 1979 that President Carter signed the first directive for secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul.
Afghanistan is on track for its most violent year since the end of Taliban rule
By JONATHON GATEHOUSE | October 22, 2007 | Courtesy: MACLEANS, Toronto
The suicide bomber struck on the main road to Kabul’s airport last Saturday, setting off a blast so powerful that it tossed surrounding vehicles high into the air. His target, an armoured SUV ferrying Afghan police and their U.S. Army trainers, was left in flames on its side. Five Afghans and an American soldier died, and a dozen civilians were wounded.
The attack, which came on the eve of the sixth anniversary of the U.S. invasion, was the third — and least devastating — bombing in the capital in little more than a week. On Sept. 29, 30 died when a man detonated himself aboard an Afghan army bus. On Oct. 2, a similar attack on a police bus killed 12. The Taliban’s current Ramadan offensive may not live up to its moniker, “Nasrat” (Victory), but it is throwing the crisis in Afghanistan into harsh relief. Despite a half-decade of NATO-led fighting against the stubborn insurgency and billions in development aid, the country is closer to a basket case than a beacon of democracy in the troubled Middle East.
Comment: Security Council condemns Karachi bomb attacks. First sign of an international intervention in the future?
By Yousuf Nazar
The political pundits have started speculating about the caretaker or interim government. While the caretaker setup is important, free and fair elections cannot be held without a completely independent, impartial, and fully empowered Election Commission.