Capitalising on the youth on March 18, 2011The storm triggered by the self-immolation of Mohammad Bouazizi, a young Tunisian fruit seller, has taken over Egypt, Algeria, Yemen and Libya. The young Mohammad, who set himself ablaze out of a sense of despair and helplessness arising out of a rotten system of justice and governance that favours the elite and crushes the weak, […]
Reorienting the growth narrative on February 25, 2011Conventional planning based on capitalist fundamentalism has not delivered in the case of Pakistan and the country needs to reorient its growth narrative. This is the key message of the new draft growth framework, an elaborate document of the Planning Commission of Pakistan, available for comments on its official website. The potential culprits for lustreless […]
Taxation for democracy on January 28, 2011The Reformed General Sales Tax (RGST) Bill seems to be clinically dead despite the government’s hectic efforts to win over political support for the proposed legislative measure. It was feared from the very beginning that imposing RGST will not be a cakewalk. The outcome is, therefore, not unexpected. The world history bears testimony to the […]
Corruption and economic development on January 20, 2011An overwhelming body of empirical evidence suggests that the impact of corruption on economic growth and development is highly devastating. Corruption impedes foreign and domestic investment, and increases transaction costs. It raises uncertainty and is responsible for low incomes and underdevelopment as it sands the wheels of economic growth. Validity of the literature that sprang […]