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Punjab Finance Minister Mian Mujtaba Shujaur Rehman presented a budget with an operational shortfall of 30 billion rupees with net tax receipts estimated at 1.2 trillion rupees, non-tax revenue at 431 billion rupees to fund an extremely ambitious development expenditure of 290 billion rupees (73 percent rise from last year) and current expenditure of 607.5 billion rupees (a rise of 10 percent). The shortfall of 30 billion rupees indicates that Punjab would not contribute to the estimated provincial surplus for 2013-14 of 23 billion rupees as identified in the federal budget documents 2013-14. This amount would either raise the indebtedness of the Punjab government - a likely scenario with obvious implications on inflationary pressures - or be funded through later cuts in either the development or non-development expenditure - a trend that has not been visible during the past five years of the PML (N) government in the province.

Unlike Iran's presidential election four years ago, when reformists took to the streets to protest the outcome, this time celebrations broke out all over the country as soon as moderate leader Hassan Rowhani was declared as the winner. The result has also been hailed by the outside world. Campaigning on the "hope and prudence" platform, Rowhani won with 50.7 percent of the votes, way ahead of Tehran Mayor Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf with about 16.5 percent while the hard-line nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili finished a distant third with 11.3 percent votes followed by another conservative candidate Mohsen Rezaei with 10.6 percent. The Iranian society is polarized along conservative and liberal lines. At the time of the 2009 election, the liberals had backed the reformist candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi and suffered a severe setback, leading to massive demonstrations and a government crackdown.
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.
According to a Business Recorder exclusive any attempt by the government of Pakistan to adopt a confrontational stance with respect to the United States decision to continue drone strikes as a counter-terrorism tool, would have serious negative implications on our ability to access foreign assistance. There is no doubt that the Obama administration is firmly committed to the drone programme and President Obama himself took centre stage in defending it only a while ago whilst delivering a speech on counter-terrorism at the National Defence University in Washington DC.
Education in Pakistan has never received the funding that has been suggested by a host of international agencies including the United Nations that has recommended to developing countries to invest at least 2 percent of its Gross Domestic Product on education. The rationale behind this recommendation with specific reference to Pakistan is threefold. First, research shows that education discourages fundamentalism and it has been argued that an educated citizenry will stifle the Taliban recruitment drive; second education also reduces the cost on healthcare by nations as an educated citizenry is not only fully cognizant of the importance of preventive vaccination including polio immunisation but also through better hygiene water and airborne diseases are better avoided; and finally education would allow far more skilled labour than otherwise possible. Thus education cannot only be an engine to improve living standard of the people but also increase output of value-added products whose manufacture requires higher skill sets than available otherwise.

 



 
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Banking Review 2012

Annual2011/12
Foreign Debt $65.562bn
Per Cap Income $1,372
GDP Growth 3.7%
Average CPI 10.08%
MonthlyMay
Trade Balance $-2.171 bln
Exports $2.175 bln
Imports $4.346 bln
WeeklyJune 17, 2013
Reserves $11.446 bln