Latest news with #hybridmodel
Arab News
16 hours ago
- Politics
- Arab News
Pakistan's defense minister says hybrid model ‘doing wonders' as army chief on solo US visit
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's defense minister has described the country's governance as a 'hybrid model' in which military and civilian leaders share power — an open secret in political circles but a rare public admission by a serving official that has taken on added significance amid the army chief's solo visit to the United States and an unprecedented meeting with President Donald Trump. Officials have presented Field Marshal Asim Munir's trip as an effort to bolster security ties with Washington, particularly in light of last month's military standoff with India and escalating hostilities in the Middle East. But the army chief's meeting with Trump — without Pakistan's prime minister or foreign minister present — has also drawn renewed attention to how much Islamabad relies on its army to handle high-stakes foreign relations, economic ties and sensitive regional issues. The chief's visit comes on the heels of the most serious clash in years between nuclear-armed Pakistan and India in which they exchanged drone, missile and artillery fire until a ceasefire brokered by Washington on May 10 brought an end to hostilities. Pakistan has declared victory in the confrontation, saying it downed six Indian fighter jets and struck military facilities. Munir's leadership during the crisis has won him a rare promotion to field marshal and broad public support, reinforcing the military's standing as one of the country's most influential institutions despite past criticism of its outsized role in politics. In an interview this week conducted as the army chief visited the United States for talks with Trump, Defense Minister Khawaja Asif acknowledged that the military's prestige had 'skyrocketed' after the conflict with India, calling it a 'blessing in disguise,' but rejected that this would erode democratic authority or give the army unchecked control. 'No, it doesn't worry me,' he told Arab News when asked if Pakistan's history of direct and indirect military rule made him uneasy about the army's stronger image. 'This is a hybrid model. It's not an ideal democratic government … So, this arrangement, the hybrid arrangement, I think [it] is doing wonders,' Asif said, adding that the system was a practical necessity until Pakistan was 'out of the woods as far as economic and governance problems are concerned.' The long-running political instability and behind-the-scenes military influence in earlier decades had slowed democratic development, the defense chief argued, but the current arrangement had improved coordination. Pakistan's military has played a central role in national affairs since independence in 1947, including periods of direct rule after coups in 1958, 1977 and 1999, when General Pervez Musharraf toppled then-Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is the elder brother of current Prime Minister, Shehbaz Sharif. Musharraf ruled until 2008 when elections restored civilian governance. Even under elected governments, however, the army is widely considered the invisible guiding hand in politics and in shaping foreign policy, security strategy, and often key aspects of governance. 'If this sort of [hybrid] model was adopted way back in the 90s, things would have been much, much better,' Asif said, 'because the confrontation between [military] establishment and the political government, it actually retarded the progress of our democracy.' By contrast, he said, the current 'de facto' hybrid arrangement had brought the army and elected leaders together on joint forums such as the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC), a civil-military body tasked with setting and managing economic priorities jointly and overseeing big-ticket investments and trade reforms. 'We have common platforms, like SIFC and other platforms, where military leadership and civilian leadership, they sit together and decide about the business,' Asif said. 'So, this is something which is a de facto arrangement and it's working very well.' The military's media wing did not respond to a request for comments. 'TOTAL AGREEMENT' Asif's remarks about power-sharing with the army on an ever-expanding policy portfolio appear particularly relevant after Munir's rare White House meeting with Trump on Wednesday, the first time in years that a Pakistani army chief was received by a sitting US president without civilian leadership present. Munir was accompanied by National Security Adviser Lt Gen Muhammad Asim Malik, Pakistan's serving intelligence chief who now also holds the national security portfolio. This too is a first for the country: that a sitting ISI director general is serving as NSA. According to a statement from ISPR, the military's public relations wing, the Munir-Trump meeting lasted two hours instead of the scheduled one, and covered not only security cooperation and the ongoing Israel-Iran conflict but also wider collaboration in 'trade, economic development, mines and minerals, artificial intelligence, energy, cryptocurrency, and emerging technologies.' These are areas traditionally handled by civilian ministries. While independent analysts say this reflects the military's increasingly visible role in economic and financial initiatives and could permanently weaken civilian supremacy in these domains, Asif insisted PM Sharif remained firmly in charge of key decisions: 'It's something mutual, we have a co-ownership of the power structure … 'There is no superimposed system or superimposed organization on Shehbaz Sharif which dictates him and he acts accordingly … [He] is making his decisions independently and obviously he is in regular consultation with the establishment on all levels.' But were there 'crisis moments' in the relationships when the prime minister had not prevailed over the army chief in decision-making? Asif responded: 'Believe me, very honestly, we haven't had any moment where decisions were not made unanimously with total agreement. Things are moving very smoothly. And god willing, one day we will achieve the sort of democracy which is needed by our country.'
Daily Mail
29-05-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
Hybrid work model best for productivity, says Australian government report on working from home
A landmark government report has revealed working from home is actually more productive than coming into the office - in moderation. WFH really took over during the pandemic with more than a third of Australians now doing their job at home. With managers trying to get staff back into the office more often, the Productivity Commission has concluded work from home arrangements are in fact more productive, as staff are spared the long commutes. 'Allowing workers to work from home some days can improve worker satisfaction and allows people to benefit by avoiding the commute to work, meaning they have additional time for other purposes,' it said. Working from home has proven particularly popular with women, who are more likely to be the primary carers of children, making them the key beneficiaries of flexible arrangements. A hybrid model, mixing work from home and the office, was seen as the best approach to encourage creative interactions. 'Workers do not need to be in the office full-time to experience the benefits of in-person interactions,' it said. 'As a result, hybrid work (working some days remotely and some days in the office) tends to be beneficial to productivity, or at least, is not detrimental to productivity.' The Productivity Commission, however, said in-person interactions were more likely to spark initial breakthroughs. 'A key reason for this is that in-person interactions may be better for collaborative tasks and idea generation,' it said. 'Experimental evidence from engineering firms indicates that idea generation benefits from in-person interactions but in-person and virtual teams were equally effective in evaluating and selecting ideas that have already been developed.' The report cited the case of IT firm, during the pandemic, spending more time on meetings 'which reduced the time available for work tasks; meaning hours worked increased while output declined'. 'The evidence on working from home is still evolving. However, given most studies find hybrid work to be either neutral or positive for labour productivity, there is no evidence to suggest that the trend towards hybrid working has contributed to the productivity loss phase of the productivity bubble,' the commission said. But it warned that less experienced workers may struggle with work from home. 'For less experienced workers, in-person interactions may be an important avenue for skill development as there may be a greater knowledge transfer from senior workers and junior workers through informal in-person interactions,' it said. Working from home has become a divisive topic with the Commonwealth Bank and ANZ requiring staff to spend 50 per cent of the time in the office, while Woolworths wants staff to return to the office three days a week. Former Liberal leader Peter Dutton lost the last election, and his own seat, after dumping an election policy plan to force Canberra-based public servants back into the office, as other public servants working from home across Australia feared they would be next. The policy was so disastrous politically that Jane Hume, who devised that unpopular WFH plan, was dumped as the Opposition's finance spokeswoman in new Liberal leader Sussan Ley's reshuffle. Before the pandemic in March 2020, just 12 per cent of Australians reported working from home on all or most days of the week. The proportion of Australians working everyday from home more than doubled to 31 per cent by September 2020, when Sydney and Melbourne were in lockdown. After those lockdowns, 27 per cent worked from home at least some of the time during the week, indicating increased popularity of more hybrid work arrangement. By August 2024, 36 per cent of those with a job reported that they usually worked from home. 'As working from home is a fundamental change to how people do their jobs, it is likely to have implications for labour productivity,' the report said. Australia is in a productivity crisis, where output for every worker declined by 1.2 per cent in 2024. The culprit, however, wasn't work-from-arrangements but a lack of new investment in technology that would make workers more productive. 'Capital matters for productivity because more capital (the machines, equipment and other durable goods that are used as inputs in production) means workers can produce more goods and services,' it said. During the 1990s to the mid-2000s, productivity in Australia grew at an annual pace of more than two per cent as the introduction of the internet enabled companies to more efficiently share data. Economists are hoping artificial intelligence could revive Australia's faltering productivity - regardless of whether staff are based at home or in the office.
