Stats-men all round
The obsession with numbers apart, the sufferings resulting from too much maths can hardly be compensated by a change in government or a few governments. There has definitely been an…
Budget blues
“It's a budget written by bureaucrats for bureaucrats” goes the refrain in the business community. No sooner had the finance minister finished his speech, the Karachi Chamber of Commerce was…
Trade and industry
There were quite a few surprises in the 2013 elections, with a number of bigwigs falling from grace. Post-election, about one-third of the representatives in the assemblies are new –…
IMF follies in Pakistan
The IMF has been actively involved with Pakistan since the 1980s – with short intervals of temporary disengagement. During this period, Pakistan availed itself of the IMF’s balance of payments…
A budget with a road map
The finance minister, Senator Ishaq Dar, presented the first budget of the newly elected government on June 12, 2013. The budget has attracted mixed reactions, which was expected. Some are…
Earning a livelihood
Human life is made up of problems. Every one of us faces various issues, but perhaps the greatest problem one is faced with is when all doors of livelihood are…
An ambitious budget
Turning to current expenditure, debt servicing is expected to increase by Rs125 billion, defence by Rs57 billion, grants by Rs3 billion and civil administration by Rs23 billion. On the other…
An ambitious budget
Budget 2013-14 has been announced on time by the PML-N government – only five days after the swearing in of the cabinet. This clearly shows a great sense of urgency.…
Rescuing Thar coal
Even as Pakistan's energy woes worsened - causing industries to shutdown, piling miseries upon people - the cheap and abundant solution to its energy problems languished and seemed lost in…
Turmoil in tribal areas
Our armed forces are engaged in fierce battles in the Khyber and Kurram agencies and on a somewhat smaller scale in the other tribal agencies to re-establish the writ of…
