February 2020

India’s Citizenship Law  ignoring national and international furore, both houses of Indian parliament, i.e. Lok Sabha (House of the People) and Rajya Sabha (Council of States), passed a controversial amendment to the country’s 1955 citizenship law. The controversial as well as highly discriminating against the Muslims, the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) 2019, which received presidential assent on December 13 to …

Exploring the Radical Notion of Feminism  The 21st century has seen various worldwide movements gain momentum, with feminism being a prominent one. Women have faced countless cruel forms of institutionalized discrimination, in different cultural settings since time immemorial. This is an undeniable truth, making feminism — a movement seeking to create equality for women in the social, political, economic and …

A New International World Order  At the present time, it seems outrageous to speak out on behalf of a new multilateral institution. The current trend is moving in the opposite direction, with so-called “strong men” around the world propagating a return to the rule of the strong over the weak. To these populists, this means that international rules-based agreements, as …

The Zainab Alert, Response and Recovery Act, 2020 Introduction A new law is in the making. On 10th of January 2020, the National Assembly passed ‘The Zainab Alert, Response and Recovery Act, 2020’. It is likely to be passed from the Senate, and will ultimately get its assent from the President before it becomes the law check. The said law …

Policy to bridge the Sales TAX Gap  Sales tax is the most significant source of Pakistan’s budgetary revenue. In 2017-18, total sales tax collection on goods and services was Rs. 1,715 billion. However, the sales tax gap, which is the difference between the actual tax collection and the amount that would have been collected if every taxpayer was fully compliant, …

Reflections on Pakistan’s Economy  in the middle of the last year, Pakistan entered into a $6bn bailout arrangement with International Monetary Fund (IMF) under a 39-month Extended Fund Facility (EFF). This was the twenty-first loan that Pakistan sought from IMF to shore up its dwindling reserves, and to avoid an economic crunch. The state of Pakistan’s economy has been in …

Importance and future prospects of Gwadar port  The pragmatic facets like geography and history have always imprinted the demographic mosaic and development of a civilisation. The civilisations have always developed along the waters. The waters have been used as trade route since long, and the modern trade has further enhanced the need of trade through waters. Pakistan being a gateway …

Merger of FATA with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa  On May 31, 2018, Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas, or FATA, formally ceased to exist. Home to five million people, and covering more than 27,000 square kilometres, these tribal districts have attracted enormous international attention in the last two decades due to their shared border with war-torn Afghanistan. The Government of Pakistan has now …

How to Overcome Hurdles to CPEC first, Pakistan is hobbled by a high fiscal and current account deficit, a large foreign debt and a resulting heavy debt repayment burden. Its ability to provide support funds for CPEC has lost to a great extent, and there is large financial pressure to expand infrastructure construction. IMF loans come with conditions and Pakistan …

How to Address Gender Disparities?  Indices are like black boxes. Before looking for the reasons behind Pakistan’s dismal performance on gender parity front, it would be enlightening to peep into various components of the Global Gender Gap Index. The Index examines the gap between men and women across four fundamental categories: economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival, …