Commentary and analysis from PIVRA researchers and outside contributors on governance, economy, education, technology, social issues, and the environment. Opinion pieces reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily an institutional position.
Cable television moved son preference, schooling and women's autonomy in rural India within months. Pakistan ran the same experiment at scale and never measured it, and the smartphone is now the new dish.
Read Article →Argues that organizations deploying AI agents need a measurable authority budget: an explicit limit on the data, tools, money, and records an agent may touch before a person must decide, grounded in the July 2026 OpenAI and Hugging Face incident.
Read Article →The European Commission's July 2026 compliance report found legislative progress but little enforcement on rights and rule of law. From 2027 a redesigned scheme judges Pakistan on implementation, and preferential access to the EU is not guaranteed past the 2028 transition.
Read Article →Argues that Pakistan's fourth major flood in five years is not only a weather story: more than half the deaths so far come from collapsing homes, and prevention depends on enforcing building rules and floodplain maps rather than on new institutions.
Read Article →Examines how unplanned sprawl in Karachi and stalled master planning in Islamabad are both driving up urban heat, and sets out heat-resilient zoning, Miyawaki forests, mangrove restoration and heat action plans as fixes already tested in the region.
Read Article →Argues that Punjab's Climate Resilient Vision and Action Plan sets the right direction on water security, agriculture, urban resilience and smog, but that its credibility now depends on institutional capacity, transparency and measurable annual results.
Read Article →A reflective essay on a train journey conversation with a retired Pakistan Telecommunication Authority official, Sher Muhammad, whose quiet mentorship guided a gardener's son into medicine and a young relative into public office, and what his example says about the unseen builders of a society.
Read Article →A profile of Atta Ullah, a young athlete from Shaido whose journey from school-level competitions to representing Pakistan at an international championship in the United States was shaped by his teachers' mentorship and his principal's support.
Read Article →A linguistic and psychological perspective on how language shapes thought, relationships, and mental well-being, and why words carry real power to help or to harm.
Read Article →A first-person look at the research on AI use and cognitive offloading, including the MIT Media Lab study on ChatGPT and memory, and why younger users appear most affected.
Read Article →An essay on how the digital era and artificial intelligence have reshaped reading habits, research, and the relationship between students and books.
Read Article →PIVRA welcomes opinion articles from researchers, practitioners, and informed commentators. Submissions should meet the following standards before review.
Send your draft, a short author bio, and any supporting sources to publications@pivra.org with the subject line "Opinion Submission".
The editorial team will review submissions and respond within a few business days. PIVRA reserves the right to edit for length, clarity, and house style.
Send it to publications@pivra.org and the editorial team will take it from there.
