Critical disconnect
Left to themselves to compete in open global economy, Pakistani exporters have largely been fighting this battle by their own entrepreneurial skills – without meaningful support from relevant government agencies.…
Irrelevant economists
A large majority of economists in Pakistan are completely irrelevant to issues related to Pakistan’s economy. This is not to deny that they are exceedingly well-trained or well-qualified. They have…
Economic strategy in abnormal times
These are abnormal times. How else should one describe the confluence of several crises re-enforcing each other and generating an acute crisis of state and society. The insurgency in the…
Save the sinking ship
So preoccupied are we with political, security, military and foreign policy matters these days that the leadership has almost forgotten that the real threat to survival is the fast-deteriorating economy.…
Scaring FDI away
January saw the government taking two economic decisions which are tantamount to systematic destruction of the economy – investors’ confidence in particular. And it is the economic team led by…
Turkey’s Erdogan decade
Not long ago, Turkey was a security state where the establishment controlled policy through a shadow government. A clandestine network of military officers and their civilian proxies exercised utmost ‘legitimacy’…
Promoting innovation
The three major players in the development of a knowledge economy are universities, industry and the government. (The Triple Helix Model, Loet Leydesdorff, Annual Review of Information Science and Technology…
For inclusive growth
Can growth be inclusive in Pakistan? A historical review of Pakistan’s economy reveals that the country achieved a reasonable growth rate of about five per cent that lasted four decades…
Energised, yet powerless
Trapped in an unaffordable energy paradigm, Pakistan’s economy has been experiencing crippling power shortages while its government is mired in mounting circular debt generated by this very paradigm. Last week,…
Deficits in our existence
In this budget season, it is hard to be distracted from the state of the nation’s economy. We look at this balance sheet and count our losses. And the spectacle…
