Crumbling tax system
Taxes play a vital role for establishing an egalitarian society, the true fruit of social democracy. Under a representative and responsible government, citizens are taxed according to their ability (at…
Debt and fiscal policy statements 2012-13
Two important documents, namely, Fiscal Policy Statement and Debt Policy Statement for 2012-13, released on 4th February 2013 by the Debt Policy Co-ordination Office of Ministry of Finance, while expressing…
A tale of two bills
Has anyone read PPP’s election manifesto? “Roti, kapra aur makaan. Ilm, sehat dab ko kaam, dehshat say mehfooz awam, ooncha ho jamhoor ka naam”. Roughly translated this means bread, clothing…
Excellent institutions
few days ago my dear friend, Hanif Abbasi, invited me to attend the annual prize distribution ceremony at the Government Postgraduate Viqar-un-Nisa College for Women (VNC) in Rawalpindi as chief…
The end of a misrule
At the end of full five years of civilian democratic rule, the country is in the grip of despair and disillusionment – the endless killing of innocent people and the…
Population rise: the big challenge
Last week the UNDP released its Human Development Report, which highlighted the abysmally low levels of improvement achieved by Pakistan in this critical area, wherein progress in South Asian countries…
Times of paradoxes
What a world of contrasts we live in. We have heartwarming tidings entwined with horrible news. We have compassionate souls struggling to save lives alongside brutes who blow the life…
Vote banks of the starving
Elections are round the corner and as the candidates head for the hustings it is time they focused on the issues which will make or break the country. The least…
Foreign investment
Four features of Finance Minister P Chidambaram’s budget stand out. First, thanks to its obsession with reducing the fiscal deficit, the budget fails to raise social-sector expenditure – just when…
Overlooked demographics
There are some facts that both news reporters and readers become overly fond of. For example, it is a fact that populations across the Muslim world are growing at an…
