Policies for digital banking: Part – I
The State Bank of Pakistan has recently granted five licences for Starting digital banks that would provide the whole range of banking services through digital platforms or electronic channels from…
Does Pakistan need domestic debt restructuring?
There is growing consensus over the need for debt restructuring within the policymaking community. However, many analysts are casually selling the idea of domestic debt restructuring without fully recognizing the…
Climate optimism
Pakistan has once again made a strong case for foreign funding for its flood recovery efforts. It has raised around $10 billion, more than the required amount of $8 billion…
Counting the ways to borrow
Pakistan’s policy thrust today to get out of the ongoing very serious economic/financial imbroglio is, heads: seek more loans at the least possible cost; tails: seek more loans at the…
Climate, world order and Pakistan – Part I
Pakistan today is in such a state where only historically unprecedented actions on a historically unprecedented scale can ensure its survival. This will be a massive challenge. But the stakes…
Dar sb waits, and waits
Finance Minister Ishaq Dar must have spent the last few days, since the zero-interest surprise disappeared from the headlines, waiting for the mullah lobby to come rallying behind him; lifting…
Confiscation and recovery of assets
Countries should consider adopting measures that allow such proceeds or instrumentalities to be confiscated without requiring a criminal conviction (non-conviction-based confiscation), or which require an offender to demonstrate the lawful…
Attacks on major Iraqi gasfield drive out US contractors
A series of rocket attacks on a gasfield in northern Iraq has sent the US contractors working on its expansion packing, dealing a blow to the Kurdish region’s hopes of…
How good is our foreign policy?
Pakistan appears to be losing out on its global outreach. The country’s national foreign policy is somehow not working. Few recent happenings explain it all. China last week hosted a ‘High-level Dialogue…
Pakistan, IMF & SBP
The expected dividends of Shehbaz Sharif, Prime Minister of Pakistan’s maiden visit to the Gulf are still awaited. These are delayed because of some “procedural matters”. During his tour, he…
