The CNG option
Recently, a controversy arose when some oil-gas producing company sold its to-be-flared gas to some CNG dealers. Pre-flared gases come out of the oil wells and are a mixture of…
How to reform trade
Pakistan’s economy faces a pivotal juncture, marked by the imperative need to reassess its import tariff structure. Recent trade data underscores the urgency for policy reforms to stimulate economic growth,…
Subject of taxation on farm income
This article discusses the issue of availability of food for the poor at affordable prices, economics of agriculture and the misperception about the potential collection of tax on income from…
Can a country survive on loans?
Almost all things in Pakistan — from politics to economics — are managed purely through an ad hoc approach. The phenomenon of ‘adventurism’ has been the hallmark of our struggle…
Crimes against logic
In August 1985, at a conference in Havana, Fidel Castro laid out the facts and figures and indeed the mathematical impossibility of the Third World ever being able to repay…
East-west disparity: an irrational view
December in Pakistan is a time for introspection. The people suffered two bloody partitions within two and half decades. There was little appreciation in West Pakistan that the simmering discontent…
Politicians by inheritance
A politician is generally defined as a person who is ‘professionally’ involved in politics, especially as a holder of an elected office. However, almost all dictionaries also give the following…
Is sovereign default inevitable? – II
The first Prime Minister of India, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, said the following on the occasion of abolition of zamindari system in his country’s largest state, UP, in 1952: “I was…
Doing away with the wrong book
The globalization process has turned the world into an increasingly interdependent entity. No nation state or a country can now claim to be absolutely sovereign, in both socio-economic or/and military…
Sugar scandal
Yet another scandal, and yet another burst of public outcry. Financial scams now seem to be part and parcel of our governance. However, the most surprising aspect about the recent…
