Addictive charity
STATE charity is an opiate: it creates addicts of both the donor and the donee. The poor accept charity because they have little or no option. Governments turn to charity…
Politics of the moon
“It is the very error of the moon; She comes more nearer earth than she was wont, And makes men mad” — Shakespeare IF for decades we associated Eid with Mufti…
A sham democracy
THE presumptuously titled Tahaffuz-i-Bunyad-i-Islam Bill that was adopted with undue haste by the Punjab Assembly some time ago continues to generate controversy at various forums with the objections that had persuaded the…
Pakistan’s positives
THE recent unearthing by EU DisinfoLab of the vast anti-Pakistan disinformation and propaganda network run by India has brought to light a highly-organised, concerted and sustained effort to malign Pakistan internationally. The…
Protecting against the second wave
AS Covid-19 cases rise across the country, it seems to be a matter of time before strict public health measures designed to stem the virus’s spread will be implemented. These…
Broadening social protection
In my last article, ‘BISP and institutional reforms’, in these pages on September 25, I discussed some of the recently introduced institutional reforms to make BISP a merit-based and responsive…
Ehsaas and the way forward
In my previous article, ‘Inclusive social protection policy’ which was published in these pages on September14, 2020, I tried to outline a roadmap for the policy and practice of integrated…
How to save the economy
Covid-19 has forced the world to learn several lessons it should have learnt long ago. The world now realizes that the financial economy cannot support the real economy in a…
The undocumented
Pakistan’s undocumented economy has always been a major reason behind its many problems, ranging from fiscal and current account deficits to inflation and poverty to high unemployment rates to being…
What hides beneath Covid-19?
How long can Covid-19 continue to provide the proverbial carpet under which we brush some of the more enduring and profound challenges we face? Probably at least until the country…
