All these years of our national independence the enemy was never too far, but it was firmly checked and held back over there. No more; it is too close now and is virtually knocking at the door. If a part of it is working to break our will and destroy our ethos to be a free people, its other part is striking at the very roots of our independent existence. By burning down the Quaid's Residency at Ziarat the separatist Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) has conveyed its message loud and clear that it has nothing to do with Pakistan. By killing medical college students in Quetta the Lashkar-i-Jhangvi has messaged that it would spare no blood to impose its own brand of Islam. Of course all this time both the BLA and LJ were busy wrecking havoc wherever they could, but the simultaneity of the attack on the monument that has come to symbolise our independence and the massacre of girl students aptly reflects the enormity of threat the enemy poses.

Commendably for it, in its Finance Bill 2013 the PML-N government has given considerable attention to higher education, allocating Rs 57.4 billion to the sector. A substantial sum of Rs 39 billion is to go into increasing enrolment in public sector higher education institutions from 1.08 million students in 2012-13 to 1.23 million in the new fiscal year. The number of scholarships is to go up from 4,249 to 6,249 while the Planning Commission has proposed Rs 14 billion for Overseas Scholarships Scheme for students pursuing MS and PhD degrees in selected fields; and Rs 739 has been allocated for local PhD programmes. Another Rs 550 million has been earmarked for a revised PhD fellowship programme.

Following the release of Pakistan Economic Survey for FY13 and the announcement of the Federal Budget for FY14, the contents of the third quarterly report of the SBP for FY13 released on 13th June, 2013 would appear to be outdated but central bank's analyses and comments on the state of economy are both interesting and profound. The report reiterates that key challenges to macroeconomic management emanate from the fiscal side and the external sector. For those who care to read and are worried about the economic drift the quarterly reports of SBP are sent to both houses of Parliament.