Revenue targets for 2013-14
According to Press reports, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) is not going to collect even Rs 2000 billion against the target of Rs 2381 billion fixed in budget 2012-13,…
Watch out, Mian Sahib
Mian Nawaz Sharif, who could not finish his stipulated term as prime minister twice before, has taken oath of office as PM again. Acquiring a ‘heavy mandate’ in his 1997…
NAB: kiss of death or rebirth?
It’s critical for Nawaz Sharif to avoid falling in the same trap as others did before him. He too, as the prime minister, blundered by putting a phony to head…
Circular debt and the economic eco-system
Reading a recent leader story in this paper about the government's intention to issue $5 billion worth of T-Bills/PIB's in lieu of the circular debt has prompted me to write…
The five men in charge
There are five men who will call the shots for some time to come in the political arena of Pakistan. They will lead decision-making on key issues and oversee the…
A new script
AND with it, perhaps now will start to die the conspiracy theories. As parliament was sworn in, the normality of it all belied a fundamental shift: for the first time…
Are you a militant moderate?
An interesting news item about Turkey has reached us via Peshawar. The source is Dr Ali Murat Yel of Istanbul’s Marmara University, who says that militant secularism in Turkey has…
Election Outlook-XX: Contested images
Nawaz Sharif was perhaps listening inattentively but reflecting deeply when newly-elected MNAs were taking oath on the first day of inaugural session of the 14th National Assembly. He was in…
Monetary policy: some observations
The State Bank has imposed a crippling high-interest rate regime on Pakistan over the past several years due to its conclusions that prices were rising at an unacceptable rate because…
Not so fast
Even before Nawaz Sharif’s formal swearing in as prime minister, the Manmohan Singh government has launched a major diplomatic initiative to kick-start a high-level diplomatic dialogue with the incoming government…
