Concurrent List
Attention must be drawn to a legal issue that may have international ramifications in the event that several items from the Concurrent Legislative List are deleted pursuant to the constitutional…
There’s need to remove confusion — II
It is strange that Sindh and Punjab Assemblies, while enacting the Sindh Workers Welfare Fund Act, 2014 and Punjab Workers Welfare Act 2019, respectively, failed to realise that entities having…
Legislation and judicial review
Democracy in Pakistan has been interrupted by successive military interventions on four occasions. All three constitutions – 1956, 1962 and 1973 – promised parliamentary democracy. The preambles of the constitutions…
Power sector: legal conundrum
The management and efficiency of any economic sector derives from transparency and availability of laws for governance in that particular sector. The electricity sector suffers from lack of transparency and…
A tale of two islands
ON Aug 31, 2020, the president of Pakistan promulgated the Pakistan Islands Development Authority Ordinance whereunder the two islands, the Bundal and Buddo islands (the “islands”), both in the coastal…
Ehsaas and the way forward
In my previous article, ‘Inclusive social protection policy’ which was published in these pages on September14, 2020, I tried to outline a roadmap for the policy and practice of integrated…
‘Unconstitutional’ taxation by provinces
The imposition of any kind of legislation that include levy of any tax or duty, cess etc having extraterritorial impact and involving entities operating on trans-provincial levels by any provincial…
‘New’ federation – I
ZA Bhutto while addressing the Constituent Assembly on 10 April 1973 as its President said: "The point of view that each and every federating unit must be party to the…
Economic reforms: Part-XXXII
In the next few parts in the series, we will narrate the evolution of fiscal federalism in Pakistan. This is a very sensitive subject as passions often mar rational discourse…
Law reforms with the 18th Amendment
The wellbeing of the people and the economy are dependent upon an efficient legal and justice system. Legal reforms are, therefore, inevitable in the existing substantive and procedural laws. All…
