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Imran Khan’s government came to power in 2018 promising to reorient Pakistan’s economy toward the needs of the population. But faced with a debt crisis it soon dropped its reformist agenda — and now, the International Monetary Fund is pressuring it to place its State Bank permanently beyond (...)
Pakistani workers describe trying to survive on the less than £50 a month many of them earn making items for firms such as Boohoo
When Qasim Ahmed* arrived in Faisalabad a year ago, he didn’t want much – just enough money to pay for a roof over his head, buy food and send a little cash home each (...)
Investigation by The Guardian finds claims of safety issues, with workers saying they sometimes work 24-hour shifts
The fast fashion brand Boohoo is selling clothes made by Pakistani factory workers who say they face appalling conditions and earn as little as 29p an hour, an investigation by (...)
Food prices have been rising in double-digit figures since August 2019, with incomes falling.
Life was not as hard two years ago as it is today for Tariq Mahmood, a 39-year-old taxi driver in Islamabad. He works seven days a week for 12 hours a day but rarely has more than a few hundred rupees (...)
The Pakistani city’s railway is a hit with passengers, but critics say worker deaths and huge debt are too high a price to pay
In a global pandemic, people across the world have avoided public transport systems where they can. But last week the Pakistani city of Lahore unveiled its “gift from (...)
THAT the National Accountability Bureau has little respect for human rights is widely known. The extent to which human rights are violated by NAB can only be established by documentation, a process in which this institution is obviously not interested. Surprisingly, NAB victims too have not (...)
Thanks to the World Bank’s flawed and corrupt investment arbitration process, the rich are making a fortune at the expense of poor countries. The latest shakedown is a $5.9 billion award against Pakistan’s government in favor of two global mining companies for an illegal project that was never (...)
There is a powerful narrative on the economy that has captivated the imagination of the current government and its support base: taxation as the panacea for the country’s economic woes.
Prompted by local and foreign policymakers and repeated ad nauseam by television anchors and government (...)
This is a story of the dodgy deal by a multi national company and then earning massive amount of money through the so-called process of Settlement of Investment Disputes, a World Bank institution acting against developing countries.
This is a new way of exploitation of the under developed (...)
The debate on the current economic crisis facing Pakistan is shrouded in technical jargon that veils the conflicts inherent in economic decision-making. We are flooded with figures of revenues shortfalls, deficits, debt and investment that require the intervention of ’neutral’ technocrats. This (...)
MANY readers will recognise that the title of this column is borrowed from an online marketplace that is increasingly popular in Pakistan. This refrain is emblematic of the ideas that dominate our society and world, ideas that most of us endorse uncritically on a daily basis. My question is: (...)
The most telling act of PTI’s intent and whom it really represents was laid bare in its first mini-budget. The PTI reversed the PML (N)’s last budget reform of barring the non-filers from buying cars and property. It was meant to check and control the informal or black economy. Where the PML (N) (...)
After the ‘first hundred days’ of the PTI government – Now the PTI regime will beseech the IMF to salvage Pakistan’s terminally sick capitalist system and their rulership.
The ‘first hundred days’ mantra of the new PTI government is proving to be a charade. The federal information minister’s (...)
Even small DFIs that trickle into Pakistan come at exorbitantly high costs for the oppressed masses of this country.
The aggressive penetration of imperialist transnational corporations, particularly in the ex-colonial world, began after the Bretton woods treaty of 1944. World capitalist (...)
Imran Khan’s notion that his anti-graft campaign will attract foreign investors is both deceptive and laughable.
The meteoric rise of Imran Khan to the slot of Prime Minister (PM) — which he desperately craved for decades —has given rise to a wave of euphoria, mainly amongst the petit bourgeois. (...)
The 205 percent increase in Pakistan’s current account deficit over the 2017 fiscal year has raised much debate about the alleged ‘economic recovery’ under the Sharif government.
Since the deficit has increased to $ 7.8 billion (from $2.38 billion in the same period last year) as a result of debt (...)
Owing to slowdown in exports and provided external borrowing are not capped, Pakistan’s external debt to export ratio is projected to be at 442% by 2019-20, which obviously will make it unserviceable. Exports, which used to finance 80% of imports in the early 2000s, now finance less than 50% of (...)
In 2011, thanks to advanced computers, three systems scientists at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology drew on an existing global marketing database of over 30 million companies and investors worldwide. The study, called ‘The Network of Global Corporate Control’, traced their inter-linkages (...)
With 20 hours of outages in mid-summer and Rs500 billion circular debt balance to pay, there is no doubt that a serious crisis has beset the power sector in Pakistan. With all kinds of solutions to the power crisis being bandied about and the PML-N giving a strong indication that it will turn (...)
First privatization minister in present PPP government had to be replaced after his failure to sell a single unit. Senator Waqar Ahmed Khan assumed the portfolio on December 16, 2009. He is one of the richest ministers of the PPP government. Nearly a year gone, Waqar Ahmad Kan is as ‘successful’ (...)
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