News

Shares rally as SBP rate hike misses market expectations

Shares at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) continued to rise for the second straight day on Tuesday, with analysts attributing the bounce back to a lower-than-expected increase in the benchmark policy rate. The benchmark KSE-100 index gained 509.56 points, or 1.33 per cent, to reach 38,942.79 points at 9:56am. Intermarket Securities’ Head of Equity Raza Jafri said the index was reacting pos

The explosion of unemployment

Every day thousands of Pakistanis are losing jobs as the ongoing economic crisis deepens further. Just how many millions will become jobless in 2023? Nobody can say for sure. But let’s rephrase the question: What will be the total number of unemployed people by the end of this year, including those that couldn’t find work even before 2023? Estimates vary. But given the current pace of business

Painful for whom?

In the past couple of weeks, politicians from several political parties have come together in a self-professed nonpartisan attempt to generate consensus for economic reforms. Given the magnitude of the economic crisis currently facing Pakistan, and the general lack of clear thinking about solutions, any and all such endeavours are welcome. The composition of this ‘pressure group’ — an ex-prime

Breaking the stupor

The country’s policy machinery has of late acted not very different from the indolent ass which inexplicably sets itself down in the middle of a busy street and thereafter refuses to budge. Shout at it, plead with it or even threaten it with a stick — it will not be swayed by reason or remonstration. At least, that is the picture that comes to mind when one tries to wrap their head around why the

Digital blackout as half of towers shut for lack of power

Amid a country-wide power outage, almost half of around 45,000 telecom towers were rendered inoperative by Monday evening due to lack of fuel and other technical reasons as a result telecom and internet links were cut off with most of the remote and some urban parts of Pakistan. The power crisis starting at 7:30am led to a firefighting exercise by all four telecom operators Jazz, Telenor, Zong4