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
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
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
As the shortages loom large, panic buying of petrol started in various cities across the country on Monday as long queues emerged at most of the pumping stations and the situation got frightening by evening when 12 hours of national breakdown send half of the fuel stations offline. The petroleum dealers in Lahore explained the enervating condition saying that the national power breakdown only e
The government’s fear of losing popularity before the elections seems to be keeping Pakistan from finalising a deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that could stabilise the economy. Official and diplomatic sources told Dawn on Monday that both sides were still discussing the seven demands that the IMF wants Pakistan to accept before it resumes economic assistance to the country. T