Opinion - Geo News https://www.geo.tv/ Latest Opinion news and updates from Geo.tv Thu, 11 Jun 2026 02:00:18 +05:00 en-US <![CDATA[The budget opportunity in FY27]]> ]]> THERE are rare moments in the life of a nation when convention, circumstance and law point in the same direction. The need for change becomes undeniable. The opportunity to act presents...]]> <![CDATA[It's a new world]]> ]]> The US-Israel attack on Iran has accelerated the collapse of an international order that had already begun to fracture under the weight of endless wars, economic instability, technological...]]> <![CDATA[Where the tax cut lands]]> ]]> Ask any salaried Pakistani what the budget means to them, and the answer is rarely about deficits or current accounts. It is about the line on the salary slip that says income tax deducted. For too many years, that line moved in only...]]> <![CDATA[A stable crisis]]> ]]> Pakistan’s economy has stabilised. Its people have not. Inflation has eased, reserves have improved modestly, another IMF tranche has arrived and...]]> <![CDATA[A time for reckoning]]> ]]> In recent weeks, Pakistan has had a great time on the world's stage. Its diplomatic triumph as the peacemaker in the Iran war was universally applauded. For days, Islamabad was the...]]> <![CDATA[Path to governance reform]]> ]]> Pakistan’s governance challenges extend beyond debates over fiscal arrangements and constitutional mechanisms. At their core lies a deeper problem:...]]> <![CDATA[Budget season is here]]> ]]> Budget season is here. Everyone is presenting their two cents on the way out of the IMF's vicious trap , solutions to kill all tax ills, a panacea for the power sector miscarriages, a lethal shovel for the trade...]]> <![CDATA[Rethinking Pakistan's expenditure model]]> ]]> Fiscal consolidation has two sides: how the state raises resources, and how it spends them. In an earlier discussion in these pages , the focus was on the architecture of taxation, incentives, documentation and...]]> <![CDATA[The economy in 25 years]]> ]]> Budget 2026-2027 is here and debate is again revolving between these phrases: higher taxes, IMF conditions, circular debt, deficits, NFC and debt servicing. Yet despite IMF instructions of heavy taxation, Pakistan's...]]> <![CDATA[The elusive Indus]]> ]]> Pakistan has reached a harrowing milestone in its environmental history, with per capita water availability falling to approximately 899 cubic meters, crossing the threshold into absolute...]]> <![CDATA[Anticipatory action financing]]> ]]> Tracking climate disaster trends since 2010, the official climate chapter of the Pakistan Economic Survey 2024-2025 notes that Pakistan is among the...]]> <![CDATA[Climate budget at a crossroads]]> ]]> Pakistan’s climate budget debate is no longer just about allocations but about whether the country is building a...]]> <![CDATA[Competitive federalism or centralised provincial monopolies?]]> ]]> The 18th Constitutional Amendment was one of the most consequential democratic reforms in Pakistan's constitutional history. By devolving 17 major subjects from the federation to...]]> <![CDATA[The cost of underinvestment]]> ]]> Pakistan’s economic debate often oscillates between two extremes: calls for aggressive fiscal austerity on one side and demands for expansionary spending on the other. Yet beneath this polarised discourse lies a...]]> <![CDATA[Rethinking Pakistan's fiscal model]]> ]]> Pakistan’s Budget FY27 should not begin with the question of how much additional revenue can be extracted from the economy. It should begin with a more fundamental question: what kind of economic incentives is the fiscal...]]> <![CDATA[Bank nationalisation: ideology or necessity?]]> ]]> Having had the vantage point of leading a bank through its transition from the nationalisation era into the private sector under Pakistan’s...]]> <![CDATA[Reordering the Middle East]]> ]]> A close look at the recent developments in the Middle East, especially Israeli attacks on Gaza and Lebanon, and the US/Israeli attacks on Iran, reveals an ongoing contest for supremacy between the...]]> <![CDATA[The echo of Chagai]]> ]]> History remembers those who rise above constraints and reshape their destiny through courage, vision and collective resolve. For Pakistan, May 28, 1998 – Youm-e-Takbeer – was one such...]]> <![CDATA[The two-tariff solution]]> ]]> Governments globally either directly provide, or tightly regulate, the provision of electricity but not the provision of other important commodities such as flour, milk or soap.

The logic for this is...]]> <![CDATA[A budget written in commitments]]> ]]> Federal budget-making in Pakistan, when the country is in an IMF programme is comparatively...]]>