UPA on shaky ground
When Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress, the second largest component of India’s ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA), walked out of the alliance last September, nobody thought that would immediately destabilise the…
Institutional pillage
`Fiscal Neanderthals`. This is how a friend used to describe the finance and FBR bureaucracy and their parliamentary `handlers` after each bout of resistance to tax reform and the introduction…
Shattered dreams
Apart from being the day of the Lahore Resolution, March 23 has, and should have, another significance for us. On that day, in 1956, the country, hitherto governed under the…
FX & Gold – weekly outlook – March 25 – 29: Cyprus dominates global financial market
The Fed''s FOMC meeting that was supposed to be the major event of last week was sidelined as Cyprus funding crisis dominated the global financial market. Imagine that how brittle…
Is land reform off the menu – I?
In a recent TV interview, Imran Khan, Chairman TI, has revealed that a great debate has been going on in his party regarding land reforms. However, the arguments and proponents…
Smart move on the eve of election
The internal Monetary Policy Committee of State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) was unanimous in its decision for keeping the discount rate unchanged and the Board conveniently approved that stance. The…
The legacy of the PPP government
The Pakistan People’s Party got a monumental mansion built in Lahore for its supreme leader towards the close of its tenure (2008-2013), which, if doesn’t outdo, by all accounts matches…
Technocratic turncoats
Turncoat or ‘lota’ is a familiar word for the people of Pakistan. It is a pejorative commonly used for our politicians who change parties frequently at the altar of ‘national…
An interim agenda
By any standards the interim government, whose outlines are now beginning to appear, has a heavy agenda and a light mandate. This is a bad combination. Here is some of…
Obama’s weasel words
For those still hopeful for American support for an equitable solution to the Palestinian problem, Obama’s visit to the region would have been a big disappointment. At a press conference…
