A fiscal system in denial
As of May 2025, Pakistan’s tax collection crisis has deepened. The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has fallen short of its revised annual target by Rs1.03 trillion – a staggering…
Pakistan’s tax system: an overtaxing Leviathan or a wake-up call for reform?
With the federal and provincial budgets due next month, public and business sentiment is once again shadowed by fiscal apprehension. Recently, media reports suggested that the IMF projects Pakistan’s revenue…
VCs for fostering leadership development to improve higher education
Heads of various higher education institutions highlighted the importance of fostering leadership development for the grooming of future academic leaders to drive the transformation of the higher education sector. They emphasised…
Fall of an education giant
I moved to the US and attended university only a few years after 9/11. At the time, the country was fighting wars on two fronts, Afghanistan and Iraq. The 9/11…
Education Reformer Cookbook
Last week, we heard that the prime minister intends to spend the GBP190 million received from the UK’s National Crime Agency on the establishment of the Daanish University of Emerging…
HEC, accreditation councils discuss challenges in quality education
Chairman of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) Prof Mukhtar Ahmad emphasised the importance of modernising accreditation frameworks and aligning them with international best practices. “To ensure quality education, we must continuously…
Prioritising education for economic development
Pakistan’s economy is steadily recovering from the downturn that began in 2019-20. Key macroeconomic indicators are improving -- economic growth is on an upward trajectory, inflation is declining, the trade…
Education and development
About 60 per cent of Pakistan’s population is functionally illiterate, as surveys count even those who can merely sign their name as literate. If computer and digital literacy were the…
Education under attack
ON the sidelines of politics, it seems that political parties and their governments have much in common despite their constant snarling at one another. And I do not refer to…
Education meltdown
THE self-proclaimed experts would have you believe that the present hybrid regime has overseen a turnaround in the country’s dire economic situation. They tell us that inflation is down to…
