News

At the mercy of climate change

The climate is changing rapidly, resulting in a range of new risks and vulnerabilities for rural people. The sixth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) finds that because of human activity, global temperatures have already increased by 1.1°C compared to temperature in the pre-industrial era, and this increase is projected to reach or exceed 1.5 °C within the ne

Finance: Setting clear priorities

National security and broader alignment with the emerging world order have emerged as Pakistan’s new priorities, something politicians and the public need to understand, as a delayed reckoning of this reality could be counterproductive for both. The hybrid regime is rolling out several legal and technical measures that promise better governance and ensure the vigilance of Pakistan’s cyberspace

Centre, KP seek clarity on gas sale ‘in violation of rules’

The Prime Minister Office (PMO) and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government have sought clarity from the Petroleum Division over the proposed sale of gas from a field in Kohat without bidding. According to sources, the PMO had issued the directive on January 2 after media reports that a minority shareholder of the newly developed Razgir field had finalised the sale of gas to a third party through neg

Stocks extend losses as uncertainty persists

Despite a series of interest rate cuts, a sharp contraction in the large-scale manufacturing (LSM) sector further jolted investor confidence in the economic outlook. As a result, equity prices continued receiving massive battering, pushing the benchmark KSE 100 index to drop below 114,000 on Thursday. Topline Securities Ltd said the index settled at 113,837, reflecting a dec­rease of 659 points

Is it time for basic income in Pakistan?

Social assistance is everywhere conditional, and in Pakistan it is no different. Either it comes with behavioural strings attached — ‘do this and we’ll help you, don’t and we won’t’ — or it is targeted, with receipt conditional on being a specific type of person or facing a particular type of problem (think Benazir Income Support Programme [BISP]and the extreme poor). Those who defend this appr