Tax reform, not aid please
The BBC has reported that a group of British MPs have asked the British “government to withhold extra aid to Pakistan unless the country does more to gather taxes from…
Latin America goes quiet without Chavez, Castro, Lula
With the death of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, Latin America has lost the last of its high-profile charismatic leaders of recent years, and it remains to be seen whether it…
Politics and the pipeline
The ground-breaking ceremony for the Pakistan section of the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline last Monday was an event of high symbolic importance. It was designed to seal Pakistan’s commitment to finally…
Victims and victimhood
Salman Rushdie, a much-feted victim of intolerance, was vigorously promoting his memoir recently when I asked a friend in London to send me a copy of The Rushdie Letters. It…
The orphan economy
There are at least six different parties and groups giving their own views about the state of the economy and the required direction of policies, and their viewpoints differ drastically…
The attempt to rescue Timbuktu
The capture by Islamist rebels on Monday of Diabaly, a hitherto government-controlled town some 400km from the Malian capital of Bamako, comes across as a setback for the French military…
Deal or no deal, only losers in US fiscal battle
Once again, Americans and the world are asking: What's going on in Washington? Party bickering has hindered agreement on a major fiscal deal before year's end - not a good…
Beyond reform?
Since the start of World Bank funded Tax Administration Reforms Programme (TARP), FBR has been making tall claims about its automation efforts. All the chairmen of FBR, who headed the…
Trade without growth
Pakistan has a lesson to learn from its misplaced priorities. Efforts towards trade liberalisation and regional integration would be meaningless without addressing structural problems first, including prolonged energy crisis, decline in foreign investment, high inflation, weak infrastructure and precarious security issues. Else we would be another sub-saharan region which boasts many more trade agreements than Pakistan narrowed down to zero without adequate economic growth!
