RARELY have I seen things as scattered and messy as they are today, in the realm of economic management in any case. At the epicentre of the mess is the IMF programme, all dressed up with nowhere to go. A staff-level agreement (SLA) was announced by the Fund on July 12, more than five weeks ago. Then on July 23, on the eve of his departure for China, the finance minister assured the country during
A POWER move by the PML-N government in Punjab, apparently aimed at securing its support base in the most populous province, has put an already-fragile alliance in the Centre, led by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, to the test. Besides the opposition PTI, the PPP and MQM-Pakistan — both of whom are PML-N’s partners in the federal government — have also questioned the rationale behind such a move
NAVEED Qamar runs an online company, which works on resource augmentation models in the media industry. His company has been hired by foreign service providers, who take on business clients and outsource their work to Pakistan. On August 14, he shared a client’s email on his Facebook profile, in which he was told that his services were no longer required. The reason: delays in delivering edited
Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb said on Wednesday the federal government is making good progress with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and hopes to get board approval in September for a new $7 billion loan programme. The government and the IMF reached an agreement on the 37-month loan programme in July. The IMF said the programme was subject to approval from its executive board and obt
The Sugar Advisory Board on Wednesday recommended export of 100,000 tonnes of surplus sugar. The recommendation was made at a meeting of the board, presided over by Minister for Industries and Production Rana Tanveer Hussain. The meeting reviewed sugar stock and its prices in the country. Speaking on the occasion, Mr Tanveer said the country has surplus sugar and no increase in the ex-mill p