Spending restrictions

Published in Dawn on May 13, 2024 THE consistent contraction in the size of the federal Public Sector Development Programme for the past three years is yet another sign of Pakistan’s lingering financial and economic crisis. New official data shows that the government has squeezed federal infrastructure development to Rs353bn — less than 0.4pc of GDP — […]

Enrolment drive

By Rashid Amjad Published in Dawn on May 10, 2024 IN a promising albeit familiar declaration, the prime minister has announced a four-year “education emergency” to eradicate the blight of illiteracy and bring millions of out-of-school children into the classroom fold. While many governments have come and gone and such emergencies have been declared, obstacles to access,[…]

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May

Grapes of wrath

By Rashid Amjad Published in Dawn on May 09, 2024 HOW I would like to live in the dream world of the neoliberal economist, in which markets are left to determine the exchange rate, where prices of wheat are left to market forces, where consumers are indifferent to eating imported or domestically produced wheat, and inputs like[…]