Economic Affairs & National Development

The saga of Pakistan and the FATF is one that I have written about extensively, having been an ardent contributor and advocate for the strategy that led to the country’s ultimately successful exit from the dreaded gray-list. The crux of that strategy involved a twofold approach: (1) improving financial oversight, legal frameworks, and institutional coordination for the intrinsic benefit to the financial regime, but also (2) calling out the deeply-politicized and corrupt agenda of the FATF as a transboundary body run amok. This dual-approach yielded excellent results for Pakistan, and incidentally, the agent-provocateur of that tussle with the FATF is now up for a similar review.
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The question of our overall trade balance, how much we export and import, is one that has always been of significant concern, and one that has bedeviled many successive administrations, particularly those of recent times. It is generally ideal for a country to have a high level of both exports and imports, with roughly an equal amount of both. If exports are too great, there are negative effects such as strong appreciation of the currency, the need to reinvest surplus forex, and inflation.
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The mainstay of current tax reform discussions in Pakistan arrives at the unanimous conclusion that the tax system is deeply flawed and cannot continue the way that it has. The most prominent and à propos recommendations include an expansion of the tax base, a reduction of unfair burden
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The Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), once the shining jewel among global airlines, still carries the legacy of its golden era. Though recent decades have posed challenges and shifted the carrier to face financial headwinds, the spirit of the airline remains undimmed. The combined challenges of a fluctuating economy, global events such as the COVID-19 ​
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With inflation hitting record-high levels, millions of low- and middle-income Pakistanis are reeling from a cost-of-living crisis. Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine in late February last year and the subsequent global commodity price hikes, costs of
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