Mother Karachi and the Mother

by Hussain Bux Mallah

Rent Me by Benny Lin/Flickr

Karachi is often called the mother of the poor and the indigent – she will feed and nurture those that reach her. Upon entering the city you are welcomed by billboards announcing ‘To Let’ almost inviting you to come and stay. Though it is quite another matter that you can’t find any public toilets in case of need!

I met Jumman first in 2012 when our team interviewed him as part of a longitudinal study on food security. He reminisced fondly about the time when mother Karachi had been kind to him. He had arrived a few years before, got a job through a relative, got married and regularly sent money home to his wife and his natural mother in their village in Shaheed Benazirabad. But then his fortune turned,

The Government’s Obligation to Uphold the Right to Maternal Health

by Sara Malkani

Photo credit: Patient with nurse at Koohi Goth Women's Hospital/ Dr. Sarwan

WHO estimates the rate of maternal mortality in Pakistan at 170 per 100,000 lives births. In developed countries the figure is around 11 per 100,000.

The high rates of maternal mortality and morbidity in Pakistan are not simply a reflection of inadequate resources or poverty, or lack of priorities on the part of the government. They also constitute violations of the fundamental right to health guaranteed under the Constitution of Pakistan. The right to health does not mean that everyone has a right to be healthy. Nor does it mean that the state is responsible for every death or injury. Instead, the right to health means that governments must generate conditions in which everyone can be as healthy as possible.[1]

The Developmental Role of the Central Bank

by Asad Sayeed

Photo credit: insignificantnobody/flickr

‘States vs. Markets’ was the buzzword for many of us studying economics or politics in the 1980s and 1990s. As the wall collapsed in Berlin – signaling the end of the cold war – the (false) triumphalism of markets was trumpeted. In time, the academic debate also shifted from this simple binary to give way to more heterodox ways of framing issues relevant to policy and social change.