Opinion
Taxing the Poor
by: Ali Khizar
Date: August 30, 2016
There is a worm at the heart of the Pakistan government’s strategy on enhancing tax revenue. The tax to GDP ratio in Pakistan continues to remain abysmally low and while...
Annual Report (2015-2016)
Date: August 10, 2016
Pakistan’s interrupted encounters with democracy and diminished public input in governance have arrested the growth of institutions and rendered public services either too fragile or too disempowered to respond to...
Opinion
Subcontinental Drift
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: August 9, 2016
As global players reorient their power calculus, Pakistan’s maritime rim land is experiencing new cartographic anxieties. In Tehran this summer, President Rouhani, President Ghani and PM Modi heralded the Chabahar...
Conference and Research reports
Pakistan: Monitoring the Key Regional Powers 3
Date: July 19, 2016
This report is the third and final in a series of three Monitoring Briefs (2016) designed to monitor and track the actions and public statements of five key regional actors...
Publications
Second Opinion – Foreign Policy in Crisis: Can Pakistan Overcome?
Date: July 18, 2016
As Pakistan’s foreign policy apparatus comes under fire for failure to perform on multiple fronts, Islamabad’s institutional paralysis is damaging the country’s international standing. With the Foreign Office mandated to do little more than issue reactive statements...
Opinion
Stabilisation Straitjacket: Budget 2016 and the Growth Bottleneck
by: Sakib Sherani
Date: June 26, 2016
Backdrop A nation’s budget and its overall economic policy framework are situated within a certain macroeconomic context.The mix of fiscal and other policies pursued by a government should respond to...
Opinion
Smokescreen in South Punjab
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: June 25, 2016
Back in May the Punjab Assembly unanimously carried a resolution hailing anti-terror operations in the province. On paper, the numbers look impressive: 10,000 intelligence-based operations have been carried out across Punjab since...
Opinions
The NSG and South Asian Security
by: Zamir Akram
Date: June 15, 2016
The Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), an informal cartel of 48 countries that regulates nuclear commerce for civilian uses and prevents nuclear weapons proliferation met in Vienna on 9 and 10...
Opinion
Things Fall Apart: The Politics of US Aid to Pakistan
by: Sauleha Kamal
Date: June 11, 2016
In a clear case of déjà vu, the United States has blocked $300 million in military aid to Pakistan, making the release of the funds contingent on Islamabad taking demonstrable steps...
Opinion
A Primordial Gender Binary
by: Daanika Kamal
Date: May 31, 2016
The recent death of Alisha, a 23-year old transgender activist from Peshawar, has brought in stark relief the continuing neglect and lack of entitlements faced by the third gender in...
