Nato summit
PAKISTAN’S Foreign Office last week offered to mediate between Russia and Ukraine in an effort to end the war. The offer has some credibility on the back of the Ukrainian foreign minister’s…
Collapse of civilisations
FLOODS are perhaps as old as time. They have always figured very largely in the human imagination primarily because of the sheer magnitude of the death and destruction they visit…
Climate and health
IN the aftermath of the floods, hundreds of thousands of displaced people are living in makeshift camps next to stagnant water. Outbreaks of diarrhoeal diseases, skin infections, respiratory tract infections,…
After the bailout
As Pakistan battles multiple pitfalls, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s government hopes to oversee a period of stability following today’s approval of a new IMF loan worth $7 billion. It is…
The bitter IMF pill
Pakistan, as a member of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), commonly known as the World Bank, has repeatedly sought financial support…
Leaky buckets
IT’S IMF time. Which means it’s time to trot out the clichés and platitudes that we have grown old listening to: reforms must be undertaken: radical, structural, painful reforms that…
Gross financing, and medium-term economic strategy
International Monetary Fund (IMF) Country Report No. 22/288, released in September 2022 – the last such report released, since there have been no successful programme reviews completed since then, given…
Security for the future
The impact of natural calamities on malnutrition is undeniably devastating, with a global increase in hunger, inadequate access to nutritious food, and rising levels of food insecurity. The Covid-19 pandemic…
Who suffers if Pakistan defaults?
While politicians and economists debate on talk shows and twitter over the inevitability or impossibility of a potential default, millions of working-class families are already feeling the crushing weight of…
A mission-oriented Budget
Never before in 75-year history of the country has Annual Budget been so important. Now that Pakistan has struggled to restart the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme even though it…
