Political parties are hunting for populist rhetoric these days. The latest is a bill from the MQM, urging for the imposition of land reforms across the country. But is mere redistribution of land enough, and to what extent can the efficacy of such reforms last, is the real question.

Putting in place a taxation system that is both effective and acceptable to economic stakeholders at large is slowly proving to become the Achilles heel of the present government. Going from VAT, to delayed VAT and now reformed GST, the common denominator thus far, is its non-implementation.

Pakistan received record remittances in August 2010; in September it didn break its record but remained high at $922 million - just $11 million shy of the amount received in the month before - taking the quarterly sum to $2.64 billion.