Stuck in the woods

This letter refers to the news report ‘World Bank terms Pakistan tax system highly ‘unfair and absurd’ (April 17, 2025). The report also cites the vice chancellor of the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics as claiming that 40 per cent of the country’s development spending was siphoned off in the form of commissions. With such opinions being expressed by knowledgeable institutions, claims that our worst days are over and that we are on the path to progress and prosperity hardly sound reassuring. Also, with our foreign exchange reserves in the low double-digits and several times lower than our loans and liabilities, which are still rising, we can hardly even claim to be out of the woods, in economic terms.

SRH Hashmi

Karachi