Farrukh Khan Pitafi

More than a decade ago, an economic expert looked around the television studio where we sat, ringed by cameras, lights and screens, and set me a challenge. "Name three things in this room invented in Pakistan." I could not name one. Nothing has changed since. The scoreboard says so. In the World Intellectual Property Organization's Global Innovation Index 2025, Pakistan ranks 99th among 139 economies.

America turns 250 today. I am only five days and two hundred years younger. So I have always felt a familial bond. Such milestones compel evaluation of what was promised and what is delivered. These days people say the American dream is dead. Before judgement, let us look at the evidence. The American dream was never one dream. It was always several dreams living under one flag. It was the immigrant's dream of arrival, work, children and education.

Cessation of hostilities in each war offers you a moment to reflect on what was lost and what was gained. The Israel-US-Iran war, which seemed impossible to end only a heartbeat ago, has offered a veritable library of lessons to us all. And we shall focus on some of those lessons in another piece. But today, let us give credit where credit is due. Remember the controversy that surfaced regarding a briefing to clerics of a sect? Or the violence in Karachi and the northern parts of the country?