Huzaima Bukhari & Dr. Ikramul Haq In this article, we are highlighting the ideas of the great thinker, philosopher and poet, Allama Muhammad Iqbal, on economics and taxation. He is popularly praised and acknowledged for presenting Tasawwar-i- Pakistan [concept of Pakistan] and as Hakeem ul Ummat [messiah of Muslim Ummah] but little has been written...Read More

Huzaima Bukhari & Dr. Ikramul Haq After 73 years of independence, our leaders in power want to celebrate liberation from colonial rule after pushing the country into a deep debt trap. This paradox depicts what Zulfikar Ali Bhutto highlighted in his book, Myth of Independence. What makes the situation more painful is the fact that...Read More

Dr. Ikramul Haq The merger of Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Provincially Administered Tribal Areas (PATA) with respective provinces, after assent of President to The Constitution (Twenty-fifth Amendment) Act, 2018 on May 28, 2018, (‘the 25th Constitutional Amendment’) was undoubtedly an historic day. This long-overdue and much-delayed action promised to offer...Read More

Huzaima Bukhari & Dr Ikramul Haq The central government’s debt, excluding its liabilities, increased to Rs. 34.48 trillion by the end of May 2020—Central GovernmentDebt, State Bank of Pakistan (SBP). In the midst of fighting economic toll of Covid-19 endemic, hitting Pakistan enormously, like many other countries, the alarming figure of monstrous increase in national...Read More

Huzaima Bukhari & Dr. Ikramul Haq In this article, we are highlighting the ideas of great thinker, philosopher and poet, Allama Muhammad Iqbal[1], on economics. He is popularly praised and acknowledged for presenting Tasawar Pakistan [Concept of Pakistan] and as Hekeem ul Ummat [Messiah of Muslim Ummah] but little has been written about his work...Read More

Huzaima Bukhari “Rumour is a pipeBlown by surmises, jealousies, conjecturesAnd of so easy and so plain a stopThat the blunt monster with uncounted heads,The still-discordant wavering multitude,Can play upon it”—William Shakespeare-Henry IV, Part 2 Socrates (469-399 BC), a famous Greek philosopher known for his wisdom met an excited acquaintance, keen on telling him something: “Socrates,...Read More

Dr. Ikramul Haq “We can either have democracy in this country or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can’t have both”— Louis Brandeis “Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an...Read More

Huzaima Bukhari “The impulse to cruelty is, in many people, almost as violent as the impulse to sexual love—almost as violent and much more mischievous”—Aldous Huxley In his article published in the The Tribune on 16 June 2015, Hashim Bukhari has rightly pointed out to a very serious issue that merits attention at the highest...Read More

Huzaima Bukhari & Dr. Ikramul Haq It is shocking that while the number of unemployed has increased alarmingly and the poor are suffering from hunger, malnutrition and serious health issues, multiplied since the outbreak of Covid-19 endemic, the non-development and wasteful expenses of the present government like its predecessors, has increased substantially as per budget...Read More

Dr. Ikramul Haq Over the period of time, Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), the apex body responsible for collecting federal taxes, has been violating its own law under which it came into existence. FBR was established through a Parliamentary Act, Federal Board of Revenue Act of 2007 [hereinafter “the FBR Act”], repealing the Central Board...Read More