02

Feb

Population and security

By Zahid Hussain Published in DAWN on February 02, 2022 IT is a nightmare scenario that is fast unfolding. Yet the threat that population explosion presents to national security is missing from our policy discourse. Aside from a fleeting reference to population management, there is not enough recognition of the gravity of the problem in the recently […]

31

Jan

Local democracy or elected despotism?

By Ali Cheema Published in DAWN on January 31, 2022 LESS than a year after assuming power PTI fulfilled its promise of radically reforming local government legislation in Punjab. Punjab’s 2019 Local Government Act introduced a party-based directly elected mayoral system. Well established in the US, this system has been adopted by several cities in England, in[…]

State Bank’s role

Published in DAWN on January 31, 2022 THE passage of the SBP Amendment Bill that gives absolute powers to the central bank will remove the last hitch in the way of the revival of the suspended IMF programme. But it would also drastically change the bank’s job description and its relations with the country’s fiscal authorities. The[…]