Study Kit

China and Russia take advantage of economic crises, weak governance and populism to challenge US-led international order LONDON: Two years ago, China and Russia issued a joint declaration with the aim of throwing out an open challenge to the current US-led world order. Coming after Moscow’s annexation of Crimea and a court ruling against Beijing’s claim to the South China …

KARACHI: Pakistan’s economy received multiple jolts during fiscal year 2018 and almost all economic indicators worsened. However, the issue is that the worst time has yet to come. The economy is faced with new and bigger challenges in fiscal year 2019. The economy took off with Gross Domestic Product (GDP) being declared at a decade high level of 5.3% in …

The latest amnesty scheme has only one purpose — the economy has a huge hole in its trade and current accounts that has to be plugged somehow If past is any guide, the ordinances promulgated on April 8, 2018 to give effect to the latest edition of a long list of tax amnesties should meet the same fate – failure. …

Home is a place of stability and security. It is a place where families come together to work towards and celebrate mutual prosperity. But as the human and economic toll of climate change continues to rise, we face legitimate risk of this sense of home being uprooted. Last year, devastating floods in South Asia took over 1,200 lives and affected …

DO forgive the people of this country if they cannot make sense of our present economic predicament. On one hand, they are told repeatedly (and correctly) that the economy has started reaping the benefits of CPEC — the ‘game changer’ — in the form of significantly reduced load-shedding, an upturn in investment and a not unimpressive recovery in economic growth. …

Last year I traveled to southern Guatemala, the source of one of the largest migrations of unauthorized immigrants to the United States in recent years. It’s clear why people are leaving: Guatemala is a country rife with political conflict, endemic racism against indigenous people, poverty and, increasingly, gang violence. But there’s another, lesser-known dimension to this migration. Drought and rising …

As the interim finance minister and her team left for Paris to present Pakistan’s case before the FATF plenary, the bank accounts of a notorious fourth scheduler were being unfrozen and he was otherwise preparing to join mainstream political processes. Months of hard work on the part of Pakistan’s government and banking institutions, as well as legitimate non-state actors, have …

As another democratic transition is under way, it is necessary to remind ourselves of the reversal of the usual civil-military leadership, where the military establishment was on the defensive in 2007 and people had an elevated level of belief in civilian governance, hopes have dimmed as of today. There are clear signs of political alienation. The country’s political leadership not …

The 18th Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit has brought Pakistan much closer to China and Russia as it seeks regional security and cement economic linkages with SCO members. By joining the SCO as a full member state, Pakistan has done exactly what Confucius famously advised: “When it is obvious that the goals cannot be reached, don’t adjust the goals, adjust …

ISLAMABAD: The global watchdog body on terror financing has formally included Pakistan on Friday on its grey list by setting new Herculean tasks ahead for Islamabad to implement in coming months. Accepting Pakistan plan in a week-long meeting, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) in its Paris meeting decided that Pakistan in June 2018 made a high-level political commitment to …