Independent arguments and informed perspectives from The Scoop’s contributors.
The World Bank has offered Pakistan a seductive prospect: per capita incomes could triple by 2050 if the country undertakes sustained structural reforms. Its latest Pakistan Development Update, Attaining Escape Velocity, envisages annual economic…
Pakistan’s clergy, wealthy patrons and revenue bureaucracy reveal how moral authority can protect privilege—and why sermons cannot substitute for fiscal justice.
“An order book proves that investors will lend at a price. It does not prove that the borrowed dollars will raise Pakistan’s capacity to repay.” On September 3, 2026, at a ‘High-Level Dialogue on…
“The first year of Pakistan’s unified agriculture income tax regime has exposed a stark gap between policy ambition and revenue collection”. The opening observation in a Dawn report captures the immediate outcome of perhaps…
Wheat has a calendar, and this week it turned. In Punjab’s rain-fed belt, the agriculture department advised farmers on Monday to begin sowing from October 15. In lower Sindh, where the season runs ahead,…
A rough road through one of Asia’s remotest mountain regions has delivered a message that Pakistan’s policymakers should find uncomfortable. Geography creates opportunities; it does not guarantee that others will remain dependent on us.…