A modest proposal

HERE is a theory: every government manages to do only one big thing in its tenure. They might try on many fronts, but succeed in only one area. In...

IMF and CPEC debts

AND so it begins. The outlines of the shape of things to come are now appearing before us, starting with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s latest...

The agenda

AS of writing this piece, it was impossible to know what outcome the elections will produce, except to say that the polls seemed to be correct in...

Sliding external sector

A FULLER picture of where exactly the economy is headed is now appearing as the central bank appears to be released from the political constraints it...

Donating for dams

ONE can appreciate the chief justice of Pakistan’s sensitivity to the growing water crisis in Pakistan, but with all due respect this is not how...

Shopping for dollars

ANOTHER week, another reminder that the economy is now running on fumes. This time the reminder comes from Fitch Ratings, the global credit rating...

Lessons of Hambantota

A LARGE number of people have once again begun asking whether Pakistan is walking in the footsteps of Sri Lanka in its growing engagement with China....

What awaits the next setup

AS the noise and fury builds up in the run-up to the election, it is perhaps worthwhile to briefly disengage from the intensity of the moment and cast...

Falling rupee

LET’S start with a basic truth: a depreciation in the exchange rate is not the end of the world. Nor is it, by itself, a sign of a calamity....

Hours of darkness

NAWAZ Sharif campaigned on the promise to end load-shedding, and the PML-N’s message throughout their campaign is going to rest heavily on their...

Between tragedy and farce

THERE is a school of thought which says that you can know something about the creator of anything by studying his or her handiwork. Works of art can...

Imran Khan’s 100 days

HERE is what I don’t get: all the people and parties criticising Imran Khan’s 100-day agenda presented over the weekend, how come they don’t...

The wages of disinformation

IT struck me as oddly profound when, as a child, I first learned that aphorism that all schoolchildren are taught at some point in their education: a...

The 4.9 billion-dollar blunder

A BIG round of applause for the honourable chairman of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) is due. And following the applause, a medal is in...

Scorched earth, parched lands

FROM Badin to Rahim Yar Khan, reports are pouring in of water shortages so severe they have left devastation in their wake, and episodic scuffling...

Between defence and development

Budgeting for reality

FROM the strategy paper we already know one thing: this budget is going to be a ‘populist’ one. Everybody said that last year, but they turned out...

Load-shedding returns to Karachi

FOR many people in Karachi, load-shedding was becoming a receding memory. An even larger number may not agree, since load-shedding in areas designated...

Taxing non-filers

WE are now told by the government’s revenue adviser that the next budget will seek to increase the tax charged to non-filers of income tax returns...

Fear of debt

IT is easy to be alarmist about a topic like the level of the national debt, and it is equally easy to mislead people into thinking that the problem...

Reversing the 18th Amendment?

THE recent remarks attributed to the army chief in a widely read newspaper report saying that the 18th Amendment presents a serious problem bigger...

The Pakhtun spring

AN incredible series of events is unfolding in the aftermath of the murder of Naqeebullah Mehsud. A group of young Pakhtun men and women, have found...

The China-India tango

TO those who have been paying attention despite the noise and fury of the domestic political scene, something very important appears to be changing...

Rackets and racketeers

FROM here till the handover of power to an interim setup, the government’s priorities will increasingly become survivalist in nature. Already the...

Between FATF and GSP Plus

TWO parallel developments in the past few days perfectly illustrate how Pakistan’s economic diplomacy is caught between a rock and a hard place. On...

Banning terror groups

THE Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is all set to take up the question of whether Pakistan is complying with international commitments to prevent...

Fire up the solar revolution

THE mad rush into coal-fired power generation is fuelling rising concerns that we could be heading in the wrong direction in planning for our future...