Study Kit

Dr Ikramul Haq, Huzaima Bukhari Unless the government goes for lower taxes with broader tax base, tax collection will remain far below the potential  The prevailing tax system is unjust, outmoded and unproductive — with high taxes, yielding low revenues and operationally complex, time-consuming and costly. Even after making tall claims of extraordinary improvements, the revenues are falling below the targets. …

By Usman Ansari Much has been written about how the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project will turn Pakistan’s fortunes around merely by being a transit for raw materials and energy resources to western China. There is the notion that Gwadar will become a ‘new Dubai’, a glimmering El Dorado on the shores of the Arabian Sea and the source of untold …

By Muhammad Azam Khan Earlier, last year the security of Gwadar port was entrusted to Pakistan Navy. The task has since been conscientiously executed via an agile and efficient Marine battalion of the navy. Sited roughly 635 km from Karachi and 120 km from the Iranian border by road, Pakistan’s strategic port of Gwadar constitutes what may be called “bedrock” of …

By Hussain Ahmad Siddiqui There are 92 most wanted high-profile Pakistani human traffickers, according to the latest edition of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA)’s “Red Book-2016”, who are declared as proclaimed offenders and absconders. The Red Book provides their pictures and detailed particulars; whereas it also mentions the names of another 58 most wanted human traffickers arrested by the FIA …

By Abdul Qadir Memon Published: December 18, 2016 HONG KONG: “Arguing against globalisation is like arguing against the laws of gravity,” said Kofi Annan, former United Nations’ Secretary General. The recent political developments in the US and the EU give an impression that this argument against globalisation seems to be gaining popular support. From the UK referendum on Brexit to …

Pakistan and India are facing serious difficulties in their bilateral relations. Though they are not in a state of war, a virtual warlike situation exists on the Line of Control (LoC) in Kashmir. They are engaged in an intense propaganda against each other.  Their mutual antagonism has increased since Narendra Modi became India’s Prime Minister in May 2014. An interesting …

China’s One Belt One Road (OBOR) initiative is carving out new pathways across the Eurasian continent, signifying Beijing’s ambitions to remake the world around it.  This project, if implemented, will fundamentally change China’s role and relationships in South Asia, perhaps in some ways that are not intended. In the Indian Ocean region, OBOR has two aspects. One is the Maritime …

One of the more striking developments of 2016 and its highly unusual politics was the emergence of a “post-fact” world, in which virtually all authoritative information sources were called into question and challenged by contrary facts of dubious quality and provenance. The emergence of the Internet and the World Wide Web in the 1990s was greeted as a moment of …

Tasneem Noorani The writer is a former federal secretary. DURING the Raj, the British ruled through deputy commissioners (DCs) for more than a century, while we in our effort to overthrow the ‘colonial’ yoke 70 years after independence are trying out the third hybrid administrative system in 14 years. At this pace we will be experimenting with a new system …

By Tahir Khan The three deadly attacks in Afghanistan on January 11 took the lives of nearly 70 people including five diplomats of the United Arab Emirates at a time when there was a traditional lull in the fighting in winter. But the attacks on the parliament staff in capital Kabul and Helmand, which were claimed by the Taliban and …