Pak Affairs

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, …

CPEC LINKAGES OF PEACE & PROSPERITY We should be thankful to US Assistant Secretary of State, Alice Wells, for at least showing some concern about Pakistan’s interests. She is worried that China is not sincere with Pakistan and its CPEC projects with Pakistan are not an aid but rather a form of loans that ensured guaranteed profits for state-owned Chinese …

Babri Masjid Case and the International Law Kamran Adil Introduction The direction of global events is more towards power and interest-based decision making than towards rule-based system that was installed in the post-Second World War era. The direction is expressing itself in many manifestations. In the context of Pakistan-India relationship, after India’s executive toyed with the legal order of the …

The Scourge of Corruption Shamshad Ahmad Corruption is today an endemic problem of our times, afflicting all societies and countries regardless of the levels of their social and economic development or the type of their political system. It has become a global challenge with far-reaching social and economic consequences warranting comprehensive remedial strategies both at national and global levels not …

The Future of SMEs Tax policy needed to encourage banks to enhance loan portfolio Bilal Hassan The small and medium enterprises (SMEs) sector is considered the backbone of any economy due to its role in accelerating economic growth, creation of jobs and taming inflation. SME sector is of utmost significance for lower-middle income countries like Pakistan. It is responsible for …

The Case for a Knowledge Economy Innovation and knowledge have always been important to the economy. Today, there is growing recognition that the global economy is increasingly driven by “knowledge” rather than the traditional factors of production. Some economists even argue that the modern economy, during the past few decades, has become more knowledge-based. This is shown by the rise …