A bad start
It may seem too early a verdict on the PML-N government which is only a couple of weeks old, but if the budget is anything to go by, the signs…
Budget and economic management
Management of an economy is the most arduous assignment for the governments owing to the socio-economic complexities and the linkages of the economy with the outside world. Monetary and fiscal…
Budget 2013-14: Concluding Speech
Alongside is the text of concluding speech delivered by Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar, Federal Minister for Finance, Revenue, Economic Affairs, Statistics and Privatisation, in the National Assembly on 22nd June…
Negotiating a new IMF programme
Two weeks ago (June 11), I suggested that it was time for Pakistan to go to the IMF for balance of payments support as the country’s foreign exchange reserves had…
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…
Paying it off
So we are told that the government plans to retire the circular debt and restore power supplies. Under the present circumstances, it is hard to imagine a better policy stimulus…
A question of authority?
This refers to Babar Sattar’s article, ‘A question of authority’, published in The News on June 15, 2013. The writer seems to have missed important aspects of the issue. Otherwise…
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.…
Poverty status: Another dilemma for the new government
Announcing an official higher or lower poverty number by the country sends the following kinds of signals to the international stakeholders, ie, foreign governments, multilateral and bilateral donors, international NGOs…
Dairy sector: a long road ahead
Pakistan is one of the top three milk producing countries in the world with an annual production of 46,000 litres. This makes the dairy industry a significant contributor to the…
