Study Kit

RIYADH: King Salman has overseen some important changes in Saudi Arabia since he inherited the throne from his elderly half-brother King Abdullah nearly three years ago. Following the arrest of dozens of figures including princes, ministers and a top business tycoon, here is a look back at some developments during his reign. Changes at the top On Jan 23, 2015 …

Politics at its best is founded on extraordinary hope. The utopian impulse is the hope that things can get better. Politics today, however, doesn’t exactly feel enchanted. As populism surges, the inspiring words seem to have gone missing, and so has utopian hope. It is vital for the good health of liberal democracies that their politicians do not descend into …

Currently, Pakistan-US relations are at their lowest ever over the past 70 years. The most obvious reason for this is the divergence between the two sides over the Afghan endgame. But the underlying reason is the global systemic transformation marked by the efforts of a declining US to contain the emergence of a rising China as a strategic competitor. By …

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is witnessing a movement of business incubators and startups. It is encouraging that youth is responding to such opportunities. The analysis of this tide reveals that nascent efforts are yielding positive benefits, but a lot is still needed to take our startups to the next level. We share here an account of our recent visit to a business …

Facebook, Google and Twitter were supposed to save politics as good information drove out prejudice and falsehood. Something has gone very wrong IN 1962 a British political scientist, Bernard Crick, published “In Defence of Politics”. He argued that the art of political horse-trading, far from being shabby, lets people of different beliefs live together in a peaceful, thriving society. In …

In the last couple of months, Pakistan taxation system has been under the microscope and has stirred much debate due to its loopholes and limited tax network. Repeatedly, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has failed to generate sufficient funds to finance the federal expenses. Very conveniently this failure blame is put on the FBR’s inefficiency and corruption by seasoned …

The acerbic allies? The former foreign minister, Khurshid Mahmood Kasuri, termed US and Pakistan as the Odd Couple in his book, and for good reason. Their seventy years old relationship has every now and then resorted to highs and lows at different times and in the wake of varying global scenarios. Consistency, stability, and shared interests and objectives, supposedly the …

Some vibes coming out of the recent security-economy conclave suggest that the current state of public finance is constraining the flow of resources to national security at a time when an additionality is critically needed. Economists hoping to be part of a cure-all technocratic set-up are pointing fingers at what they view as the overgenerous 7th NFC award. This award …

THE Right of Access to Information Bill, 2017, has finally become law. As it passed through the different stages required, civil society groups and the media decried it as a weak law that did not meet certain standards pertaining to right-to-information legislation. This made sense. Even so, these groups need to be mindful that harping along the same lines during …

Once again, the symptoms of a financial crisis have become apparent. Over the last year, the deficit on the current account of the balance of payments has shot up by 150 percent, from USD 4,867 in the year 2016 to 12,120 in 2017. In a situation where export earnings are declining and import expenditures rising, it is not surprising that …