Tabdili? What Tabdili?
The Prime Minister is the only change that seems to have happened to Pakistan since the advent of the PTI government which came in riding Imran Khan’s catchy slogan of…
Abdication as policy
Pakistan has a national crisis in education in dire need of a national response. But the responsibility to deal with this rests with the provinces after the 18th Constitutional Amendment.…
Abdication of the state
It is not just that the terrorists seem to be winning, with their daily exploits. The real tragedy, perhaps, is that the state is unable to perform its normal duties.…
What’s on our mind?
What is Pakistan thinking and talking about? There is, of course, no way of drawing a credible picture or a map of what is on the minds of ordinary Pakistanis…
‘Unconstitutional’ windfall tax–I
Banks have regular windfall income from dealing in foreign currencies – oxymoronic treatment by SRO. 1588(I)/2023 dated 21.11.2023. In Pakistan, Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) is de facto legislature (sic)…
A predator state
PAKISTAN appears to fit the definition of a ‘predator state’ which, according to economist James K. Galbraith, is “a political system in which a narrow band of elites uses policy…
A green vision for Pakistan’s survival
As the world confronts the escalating impacts of climate change, 2025 begins with a stark reminder: 2024 was the hottest year on record. This alarming milestone has turned scientific warnings…
Holding the IMF to account
DESIGNED to be the international lender of last resort and help countries facing short-run balance-of-payments distress, the IMF has a rich history of being the quack physician that killed the…
The real and present killer
Bomb blasts. Shoot-outs. Missiles. All are killers. When they happen, there is uproar. There is panic. There are emergency meetings. There are drastic steps taken. As they should be. How…
A single life
HOW many deaths give a single life meaning? In Pakistan, even the massacre of 150 APS students and teachers in Peshawar in 2014 was not enough. They have become a…
