Pakistan has been suffering from chronic governance issues for the past several decades. Inheriting the post-colonial bureaucracy and with its manageable population of 30 million (West Pakistan, 1947), the country managed to get by in the early days. The population continued to grow to 70m in 1971 and to 130m in 1998, but it remained unfashionable and politically incorrect to talk about harmoni
From an all-time low of Rs276.58 a US dollar on February 3, the rupee gradually rose to 259.99 on February 24 — a recovery of 6 per cent — as crippling import restrictions remained in place. But it may come under renewed pressure in the April-June quarter. The external sector fundamentals are still too weak to lend lasting support to the local currency. The massive decline in the current accoun
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Sunday formally constituted a committee to monitor the implementation of ‘ambitious’ austerity measures announced a few days ago. A notification regarding the constitution of the committee was issued at the directive of the prime minister. The seven-member committee included Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, Education Minister Rana Tanveer Hussain, IT and Telecommu
Stocks extended their overnight gains on Wednesday as the benchmark index of representative shares traded on the higher side throughout the session. Arif Habib Ltd said the upswing was because of the expected signing of a staff-level agreement between the government and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for the ninth tranche of the $7 billion Extended Fund Facility. Volumes increas
IN her remarks to a German broadcaster on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference last week, IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva set out the agenda for good fiscal governance in Pakistan. “What we are asking for are steps that Pakistan needs to take to be able to function as a country and not to get into a dangerous place where its debt needs to be restructured,” she said. Her ad