Editorial

The money market has clearly priced in full resumption of the Extended Facility (EFF) and after recovering more than three percent in two days and then dropping a little, it still stands at 208.4 at the time of writing, a near two percent premium over its value just two days ago. PM Shahbaz Sharif’s surprise […]

Afghan authorities would have been better able to cope with the aftermath of the disastrous earthquake that killed more than a thousand people if they weren’t so savagely isolated by the international community. Already terribly short of funds and battling droughts and famines in different parts of the country, the Afghans could not have been […]

Parliamentary oversight of talks with Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan is, definitely, the right way to proceed if negotiations with them are inevitable, and due credit must be given to Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto for raising this issue, but it still waltzes past the question of why they are necessary in the first place. Far too many Pakistanis […]

Clearance efforts have already taken hold as landslides triggered by torrential rains have already started suspending traffic in the north. Elsewhere Climate Change Minister Sherry Rehman is reading the message written on the wall: beware! Beware! Urban flooding is here. But amid all the hullabaloo over sending distress signals to the army, putting Rescue 1122 […]

It seems the stars are finally aligned and we can expect a resumption of the IMF bailout program very soon because the government and the lender have been able to iron out their differences regarding the budget for the new fiscal year, even though the long-awaited staff-level agreement hasn’t yet taken place. And the fact […]

With as many as 113 people testing positive across Pakistan on Monday (as per the official COVID database) and the fearful spike surpassing 10 per cent in Karachi and Hyderabad, it would be rather foolish to assume we are still out of danger. The dark tunnel is upon us again, in the form of the […]

It is not every day that our legislators listen to the humanity chimes buried deep within and raise their voices for causes that actually matter. Therefore, Punjab Home Minister Attaullah Tarar should be appreciated in the strongest of words for pulling the drapes off emergency measures to deal with an alarming rise in crimes against […]

Even Nato Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has accepted that the Russia-Ukraine is so deadlocked that it is likely to linger for years. That implies three very important things. One, everybody miscalculated very badly. Russia was wrong to believe that it would take Kyiv in a few days. Ukraine was wrong to expect active help from Nato. […]

Reports that the government is no closer to a deal with the IMF, and that next year’s budget is going to be harsher yet if the bailout program is to be revived, must be counted as a serious setback for the ruling coalition. The budget must be passed by parliament by June 28, 2022, to […]

Former prime minister Imran Khan was demanding fair elections when he opened the floor for a long march on the citadel four weeks ago. Snap forward to Sunday and he is still sounding the alarm for the upcoming wave of anarchy if round two is not held. The only addition has been that of yet […]