THE generous ‘incentives package’ for Pakistani expats, announced by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, is yet another symptom of the Dutch disease afflicting Pakistan’s economy. In our case, however, the disease is not linked to natural resources, which mostly remain unexplored, but to the growing reliance on workers’ abroad to stay afloat. Amid drying up foreign loan and aid flows, the dependence
HOW should Pakistan choose between the US and China? So far, a choice has not been foisted upon us, but the time is coming when it will be. Before that time arrives, it is a good idea to devote some structured thinking to the matter and be prepared to act. Not too long ago, a piece of advice was offered by Hina Rabbani Khar, one-time minister of state for finance and foreign minister of the cou
Hungary and Pakistan agreed on Thursday to mutually lift the visa requirement for diplomatic passport-holders in each other’s countries as its foreign minister visited Islamabad. According to the Foreign Office (FO), Hungary’s Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó was on a one-day visit to Pakistan on the invitation of his counterpart Ishaq Dar. He is accompanied by a high-leve
The government will publish an advertisement next week to attract new bidders for the privatisation of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), the privatisation ministry said in a statement on Wednesday. The government’s failed first attempt to privatise PIA cost the national exchequer $4.3 million, the National Assembly Standing Committee on Privatisation was informed on February 26. Last mo
Pakistan’s oil import bill decreased 1.19 per cent to $11.94 billion in the first nine months of the current fiscal year against $12.08 billion over the corresponding months of last year. The imports gradually declined over the past few months before posting a negative growth, according to data compiled by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics. In stark contrast, the import of machinery grew 1