With its net deficit for the fiscal year 2024-25 going beyond Rs318 billion, the aggregate losses and loans of the National Highway Authority (NHA) have crossed Rs1.82 trillion and Rs3.1tr, respectively, while its annual revenues stand at a mere Rs54.15bn. The NHA’s total assets, valued at Rs5.8tr, have been declining for the past two years, down from Rs5.9tr in FY22 and Rs5.84tr in FY23. In
Bulls regained their control of the trading floor at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Thursday as shares gained more than 1,000 points. The benchmark KSE-100 index gained 1,009.70 points, or 0.89 per cent, to stand at 115,094.23 points from the last close of 114,084.53. Mohammed Sohail, chief executive of Topline Securities, said that investors were buoyed amid expectations that the Inte
THIS is not how it works. The biggest folly that any wielder of power can fall prey to is to take their own power for granted. It does not work that way. The world is not made of Lego blocks that it can be made, disassembled and remade into whatever shape one fancies. Trying to treat it as such undermines the very roots from which one’s power grows. The government has some cause to celebrate th
With inflation cooling, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) hit pause on its multiple rounds of monetary easing that might have risked destabilising its currency or worsening the trade deficit. Economists said the government should shift its focus to implementing economic reforms as interest rate cuts are not the elixir for growth, after the central bank on Monday unexpectedly kept interest rates
THE last few years have seen a slow expansion of social assistance programmes in Pakistan. Among mainstream political parties, the PPP claims to embrace such programmes as a policy measure. In 2008, the PPP-led federal government introduced the first targeted cash transfer programme, the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP). In its 2024 election manifesto, the PPP promised to introduce addit