April 2018

In Pakistan, the tax gap is estimated to be over 11 percent of GDP – a fact that signifies the huge potential for tax revenue. The tax authorities need to exploit this potential in order to mobilize additional tax revenue of more than Rs 3.3 trillion that will jack the tax-to-GDP ratio up from the current 11.5 percent to 23.3 …

The wealth we must tap Our economic relationship with the ocean is once again evolving in important ways. As a setting for global trade and commerce, and as a significant source of food and energy, the ocean’s contribution is already important. This century, it is likely to become an economic force. The drivers are many and varied, but have their …

Undoubtedly, Pakistan once again is passing through a very critical phase of its history, surrounded as it is by formidable external challenges compounded by internal instability. Daily violations of LOC by India are a constant reminder of its military occupation of Kashmir in violation of UN Security Council resolutions and the threat posed by it to Pakistan’s security. On the …

Bumpy Roads Ahead The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a global money-laundering watchdog, recently decided to place Pakistan back on its terrorist financing watchlist in June 2018. The United States fervently lobbied member countries of the FATF to place Pakistan on a so-called grey list of nations that are not doing enough to combat terrorism financing. Being on this list …

By: Ali Ahmad Can the world come back from the brink? The Munich Security Conference (MSC) 2018 brought together statesmen, politicians, military chiefs, CEOs and human rights campaigners from across the world. Combatting terrorism, relations between countries and concerns over military confrontations by using nuclear weapons featured high on the agenda MSC. The participants debated for three days on the …

By: Uzair Salman Imposition of punitive tariffs on steel and aluminium imports  Unswayed by warnings of a trade war, President Donald Trump, on March 08, ordered steep new tariffs on steel and aluminum imports to the United States, vowing to fight back against an “assault on our country” by foreign competitors. Flanked by steel and aluminium workers and key staff, …

The reform agenda will decide his future On March 17, National People’s Congress of China reappointed Xi Jinping as China’s president with no limit on the number of terms he can serve. The NPC also appointed former top graft-buster and a close Xi ally Wang Qishan to the formerly ceremonial post of vice president. Xi, the most powerful Chinese leader …

A Big Failure of the United Nations? The happenings and developments in the contemporary international order suggest that the collective security system that was established through the United Nations Charter has failed to protect international peace and security. The Aleppo tragedy of 2017 and the mayhem throughout Syria at present bear the biggest proof of this failure. The situation around …

Reparation Case, Xi’s Elevation and FATF Grey List Introduction This part of the Debates will present three issues: first is the Reparation Case of 1949 that was specifically asked in international law paper for CSS 2018; second is a brief comment on the amendment to the constitutional law of China with respect to Chinese leader Xi Jinping; and the third …

By: Mahboob A. Khawaja   On need to abandon egoistic insanity Are Arab-Muslim leaders waiting for the unknown and unthinkable catastrophic end to their own life and time in history rather than to stand up and make critical change? These leaders must inhabit a world of new political imagination to avoid the same ending as happened to the Romans. Would the …