Abdul Basit Khan

  Where political authority is unstable or institutional boundaries are uncertain, the bureaucracy becomes vulnerable to competing pressures. This does not mean that civil-service reform…

  Subsequent Supreme Court proceedings have also referred to the principles laid down in that judgment. The question, therefore, is not whether such principles exist.…

  PAKISTAN is once again preparing to reform its civil service. The latest initiative is ambitious: the federal government has proposed 11 specialised professional cadres,…

  PAKISTAN is searching for sustainable ways to accelerate economic growth, increase exports, reduce poverty and create employment. We debate industrialization, taxation, investment and productivity—and…

  PAKISTAN’S governance crisis is often explained in remarkably simple terms: the bureaucracy is inefficient, corrupt, resistant to reform and responsible for administrative failure. There…

  PAKISTAN is once again debating creation of more provinces. The demand is neither new nor entirely without merit. In a country of more than…

  PAKISTAN has spent decades discussing economic growth without addressing the structural weaknesses that repeatedly pull the economy back into crisis. Whenever growth begins to…

An equally important question is whether political parties actually implement the electoral programmes on which they seek votes. In every election campaign, parties make ambitious…

  WE frequently quote the sayings of the great Quaid-i-Azam. We make speeches in front of his portraits, listen to accounts of his life and…

  As Pakistan approaches another Independence Day, the familiar celebrations will once again fill our streets with flags, lights, national songs and speeches. Yet Independence…