Islands of prospects

By Naseer Memon
(The News, Political Economy-24th March 2013)

According to newspaper reports, real estate tycoon Malik Riaz’s Bahria Town and a US investment group signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for $15 to 20 billion investment on March 11. Under the project, Bahria Town, in collaboration with foreign companies associated with prominent US investor Thomas Kramer, would construct the world’s tallest building and a number of other projects some 3.5 kilometres off the Karachi shore. A spokesman for Bahria Town said the project, the Bodha Island City, would be developed within a period of five to ten years, and that it would comprise Net City, Education City, Health City, Port City and other infrastructure projects. The world’s most modern shopping mall would also be built on the Island City. Continue reading “Islands of prospects”

Politically conceptualizing a “Green Economy – Malik Amin Aslam Khan

“Our foot is stuck on the accelerator and we are heading towards an abyss” (Ban Ki-Moon)

The global growth model is clearly on an unsustainable pathway. An exponentially expanding population, extravagant consumption patterns, rising greenhouse gases triggering catastrophic climate changes, dwindling biodiversity reserves, rapid and unregulated urbanization – these are just some of the environmentally alarming trends delivered by the existing model for economic growth. Thus, it is no surprise that while the global GDP has more than doubled in the past three decades the planet has paid a very heavy price with more than 60% of its natural ecosystems being degraded. Continue reading “Politically conceptualizing a “Green Economy – Malik Amin Aslam Khan”