Saudi-Israeli anti-Iran nexus
A War-Torn world heaved a sigh of relief on Thursday night after success was declared at the Iran nuclear talks in Lausanne, Switzerland. Months of tortuous negotiations have ended for…
Peace parleys
Long reviled as a state aiding terrorists, Pakistan has eventually started taking concrete steps to refurbish its image by delivering on its promise of supporting intra-Afghan talks on ending the…
The Ufa goof-up
Passion uninformed by reason is ultimately dishonest. It never serves the national interest. But it always serves particular interests dressed up as the national interest. This has been on display…
Behind India’s sabre rattling
The current round of firing between Pakistan and India across the Line of Control (LoC) and the Working Boundary (WB) began on September 30 – not coincidentally four days after…
Cheap credit, but where are the borrowers?
The central bank took the well beaten path of monetary easing by lowering the discount rate. The MPS announcement made public on Saturday took the discount rate down by another…
Lopsided and indefensible
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Finance Minister Ishaq Dar came out with separate statements about the economy on November 1, 2014 – both professionally invalid and morally indefensible. The above-mentioned…
The monetary and fiscal quagmire
The Ministry of Finance, State Bank of Pakistan and IMF would like us to believe that fiscal consolidation has taken place, a prudent monetary policy has resulted in sound monetary…
Towards an economic turnaround?
Is the economic turnaround round the corner? Well, the go-ahead given by the International Monetary Fund executive board to the release of $501.4 million to Pakistan, as part of a…
The Yemen conundrum
While the possibility of Pakistan joining Saudi-led and US supported air campaign against Houthi rebels in Yemen is up in the air and marked by mixed signals, the pronouncements by…
Budget: a radical change
How is it that a country that has a population about a quarter that of Karachi and virtually no natural resources has per capita income that is about 18 times…
