Covid19-pendamic, leadership & apathy
Huzaima Bukhari & Dr. Ikramul HaqIn a country of about 210 million people, about 10,000 individuals, prominent in business or profession or holding key positions in state institutions, think they know each and everything and can fix the multiple and…
Tax package for coronavirus economic toll
Learning from China & othersDr. Ikramul HaqNobody in Pakistan has highlighted till today what China has offered as tax package to help domestic businesses hurt by the deadly corona outbreak in addition to overcoming it in a short time. The…
Pakistan: case for external debts write-off
Huzaima Bukhari“Good debt accrues assets that generate positive returns and externalities”—Anthony Scaramucci—American political consultantAny logical person would advise someone looking for a break-through to “strike when the iron is hot”—the right (or rather ripe) time to realize an apparently unachievable…
Relief & stimulus package
When challenges offer opportunitiesHuzaima Bukhari & Dr. Ikramul Haq“It is a narrow mind which cannot look at a subject from various points of view”— George Eliot, Middlemarch “Five percent of the people think; ten percent of the people think they think;…
Decades of (in)dependence
Huzaima Bukhari & Dr. Ikramul HaqAfter seven decades of independence, the rulers in Pakistan want to celebrate liberation from colonial rule having pushed the country into a chronic debt trap at the hands of neo-colonial forces. This paradox depicts what…
NFC & fiscal consolidation
Huzaima Bukhari & Dr. Ikramul HaqIn these columns, we have been repeatedly pleading for an urgent action to review the existing taxation rights under the Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan [“the Constitution”] as presently, all broad-based and buoyant sources…
Helplessness—a human tragedy?
Huzaima Bukhari“Ultimately what I end up writing about is helplessness and the flipside of that, empowerment”—Joss WhedonWhen a crisis hits one with no immediate solution at hand, when one is struck by a calamity with no hope of support from…
Forgotten suo motu case
Dr. Ikramul Haq“It has been common knowledge for years that a large number of Pakistani citizens, who are residents of Pakistan and are maintaining accounts in foreign countries without disclosing the same to the authorities competent under the laws of…
Need for all-out reforms
Huzaima Bukhari & Dr. Ikramul HaqEvery now and then, we keep on hearing from higher judicial echelons that the federal and provincial governments must run the affairs according to the Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan [“the Constitution] and applicable…