On tax amnesty
Amnesty is a one-time sovereign pardon of punitive legal proceedings offered to a specific class of lawbreakers. Unlike punishment, which is often retributive-cum-reformative, amnesty is reformative in nature, establishing the…
The last budget
The outgoing government presented its fifth and last budget on June 1, 2012. Since the year 2012-13 was an election year, the intention of the government was totally inconsistent with…
Viewpoint: Old Thinking, New Realities
Conspiracy hatchers and theorists have always abounded in the murky politics of this country: politicians conspiring with the establishment for the overthrow of their rivals, with foreign powers to keep…
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 PML-N’s manifesto
As a matter of principle, election manifestos outline the priorities and goals set by a political party based on a best case scenario. That’s the reason the manifestos abound in…
Love as a counter
There are at least 100 Pakistani families who will not be voting in the forthcoming general elections. They no longer have houses that the Election Commission can visit to verify…
A city for all
Islamabad may be beautiful but the city is not without its can of worms. The proceedings of suo motu case number 3 of 2011 in the Supreme Court of Pakistan,…
Financial tsunami
Political tsunami, as popularised by Imran Khan, is now well-known in Pakistan. What is not known is ‘financial tsunami’, which has struck Pakistani shores in the last two weeks. This…
Demons we must fight
Sometime back in these columns I had argued that if Islam were to sue for libel, many of its followers would find themselves in the dock. No faith has suffered…
The care they can take
The constitution is silent on the precise role of the caretaker government. There is a general agreement that the caretaker setup should not take any action that favors one political…
