Category: Featured

Why Pakistan’s growth cycle keeps ending in IMF programmes

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LAHORE: The post-war Bretton Woods system was based on exchange rate stability, where the Official Development Assistance (ODA) was used to provide necessary development finance to the developing countries. The system ran successfully during the 1950s and 1960s, when developing economies achieved high rates of capital accumulation. However, the collapse of the Bretton Woods system in the early 1970s brought a turn in development finance, where private international finance started to take a driving seat. The private turn in international development finance has changed the international financial architecture. Under the…

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How flawed LNG deals fuelled Pakistan’s Rs2.6tr gas-sector meltdown

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ISLAMABAD: Was the launch of liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government about a decade ago a blunder? This question arises when we look at the current situation. Pakistan and Qatar have recently reached an understanding to divert 24 LNG cargoes, meant for Pakistan in 2026, to other destinations. The government claims it will save Rs1,000 billion. The same stories had been heard in 2015 when the PML-N struck an LNG import deal with Qatar. It was claimed that the country would save $1 billion…

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Bringing $3b investment back to PSX

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KARACHI: “Only Pakistan’s stock market is booming.” This is the line echoing across business circles still recovering from a decade of painful economic stabilisation. And yet, the KSE-100’s rise from the low 40,000s to nearly 170,000 – over 300% return in just a few years – cannot be dismissed as a coincidence or speculation. It is fuelled by a combination of deep liquidity, capital market reforms, resilient corporate profitability, strong dividends, and a valuation base so low that blue chips were trading at 3x price-to-earnings (P/E) ratios. But this naturally…

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Indonesian President to make first official visit to Pakistan on December 8–9

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The President of Indonesia, Prabowo Subianto, is set to visit Pakistan on an official visit from December 8-9. This is the Indonesian President Prabowo’s first visit to Pakistan. The visit is set to coincide with the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Pakistan and Indonesia. In a post on X, the Foreign Office of Pakistan detailed that President Prabowo is set to hold meetings with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, President Asif Ali Zardari, and Chief of Army Staff and the Chief of Defence Forces, Field Marshal Asim…

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FinMin says Pakistan has rebuilt fiscal buffers, eyes sustainable growth at Doha Forum

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Finance Minister Senator Muhammad Aurangzeb projected a confident message of economic stabilisation and forward-looking reform at the Doha Forum, telling a high-level panel that Pakistan has “rebuilt fiscal buffers, restored external balance and is now shifting decisively from stabilisation to sustainable growth.” Speaking at the session ‘Global Trade Tensions: Economic Impact and Policy Responses in MENA’, on Saturday the minister said, Pakistan is ’embarking on the right path of reform and resilience’, crediting the post–IMF programme overhaul for easing pressures at a time when global trade disruptions, tariff shifts, and…

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ECP refuses to recognise Barrister Gohar as PTI chairperson

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The Election Commission of Pakistan has refused to recognise Barrister Gohar Ali Khan as the chairperson of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), in reply to Gohar’s previously issued letter, stated that on November 13, he had requested that the affiliation of independent senators with PTI be acknowledged. The commission said the PTI intra-party elections case is still pending, and the party has obtained a stay order from the Lahore High Court (LHC). According to the ECP, he cannot be recognised as PTI chairperson and holds no…

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Confusion mars FCC’s early weeks

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ISLAMABAD: Three weeks into its existence, the newly minted Federal Constitutional Court (FCC) is struggling to find its bearings, having yet to leave a visible imprint on the country’s judicial landscape. Despite disposing of 99 cases, it has not issued a single reported judgment, leaving lawyers and observers waiting to see what kind of jurisprudence the new apex court intends to craft. So far, it has disposed of 99 cases, even as just 11 new matters have been filed by the country’s former apex court. Perhaps most tellingly, the FCC…

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Australia imposes sanctions, travel bans on Afghan Taliban officials

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Australia on Saturday imposed financial sanctions and travel bans on four officials in Afghanistan’s Taliban government over what it said was a deteriorating human rights situation in the country, especially for women and girls. Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong said the officials were involved “in the oppression of women and girls and in undermining good governance or the rule of law” in the Taliban-run country. Australia was one of several nations that in August 2021 pulled troops out of Afghanistan, after being part of a NATO-led international force that trained…

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Won’t be ‘bystander’ to HR abuses: Pope

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VATICAN CITY: Pope Leo XIV told new ambassadors to the Holy See on Saturday that the Vatican would not be a “silent bystander” to human rights abuses around the world. The comments are one of the clearest yet in revealing the philosophy of the US pope, who was elected head of the world’s Catholics in May. “I wish to reaffirm that the Holy See will not be a silent bystander to the grave disparities, injustices and fundamental human rights violations in our global community, which is increasingly more fractured and…

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Trump takes aim at Europe in new security strategy

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WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump has had Europe in his crosshairs since beginning a second White House term earlier this year. But in his new National Security Strategy — published in the dead of night early Friday — the US president launched an all-out attack, lambasting Europe as an over-regulated, censorious continent lacking in “self-confidence” and facing “civilizational erasure” due to immigration. The highly anticipated document codifies in writing the offensive launched by Washington months ago against Europe, which it accuses of taking advantage of American generosity and of failing to take responsibility…

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