Will outsourcing help solve Pakistan’s tax problem?
PML-N’s Miftah Ismail suggests the government can raise a lot more revenue if it outsources many of the FBR’s functions. But is it the panacea or would it create more problems than it solves?
Fintechs: Goliaths of today, dinosaurs of tomorrow?
Innovation is not the done thing in Pakistan’s commercial banking and soon Pakistan’s financial services industry is expected to witness a David-and-Goliath contest of sorts, with Fintechs with negligible capital taking on commercial banks with billions, even trillions, in assets – and beat them
Daehan: Korean or Vietnamese? Well, what’s in a nationality?
In an era of globalisation, where a company is from, and what country its brand name should be associated with is increasingly...
Padding up the cement tycoons’ coffers
With CCP timidly looking away, the APCMA is running a cartel, setting up production quotas and extracting rapacious rates from captive consumers
Don’t cast your vote before you’ve seen these WhatsApp leaks
Two fictional characters each representing the PTI and PML-N, engage in an enlightening WhatsApp conversation that can help prospective voters make the key decision at the ballot box.
Insafian vs Nooni: The choice before the voters
How the major national parties stack up on matters of economic policy
Energy: colliding visions for powering Pakistan
Both the PTI and PML-N offer competing proposals for how best to manage Pakistan’s electricity generation sector
Healthcare: the (hitherto) ignored priority
If one had to reduce the state of an entire nation’s healthcare to a single number, it would be average life expectancy,...
Water and climate change: the (hopefully not) insurmountable challenges
Here is the bad news when it comes to climate change: if the government of Pakistan consisted of 100% extremely competent and...
Fixing a badly broken school system
Both parties agree that the school systems need fixing, and both are focused foremost on physical infrastructure
Will the new boss at the PSX clean house?
The new CEO of the country’s only stock exchange has big plans to expand investor participation in Pakistan. But does he dare take on the power of the brokers?
Shan Foods, intent on spicing it up with a listing on the bourse
With disposable incomes on the rise, the Pakistani international spices giant not just doubles its size in the last three years, but with new products and an acquisition part of its expansion plans, the family-run business is evaluating tapping into funds from the capital market
Why funding is no object for Pak-Qatar Investment
Backed by very strong sponsors, from amongst Qatar’s royals, the company has never faced any issue in calling capital
How investor cash is changing the face of Pakistan’s diagnostic labs
From global private equity to domestic healthcare companies, laboratories in Pakistan are attracting investment and getting technological upgrades
The economy of Punjab’s graveyards
How the final resting places of citizens dead and buried are managed and maintained