It’s not happening in Pakistan alone. Prime farmland in other developing countries is also being acquired by foreign investors, mainly from the West and the oil-rich Middle Eastern countries.

A broken pick-up, a generator, discarded furniture, a computer and a printer, and a modest sum of two million rupees were the only resources that Sher Ghazi possessed when he decided to turn his dream of launching an improved apricot drying project to reality. Today, he is the CEO of Mountain Fruits, the only fruit-production company in Pakistan to sell organic, Fairtrade apricots.

It is not normal protocol for World Bank vice presidents to make presentations. But this was a special occasion: it was March 2005 and Pakistan’s new-found prosperity was at risk. So as General Musharraf sat to listen at the Presidency in Islamabad, Praful Patel, vice president of South Asia for the World Bank, and not one of his juniors, delivered the news: Pakistan was on the brink of an energy crisis.

Several factories in the Punjab close shop as the energy crisis worsens.

Although drone technology exists in Pakistan, there are no efforts underway to produce weaponised drones that could rival the US Predator.

The government has chalked out various schemes intended to alleviate poverty. In fact, the government says it will lift many of the country’s poor to a level of self-sufficiency by various means, including a transition to “conditional cash transfers,” training and employment of one person per household, and the provision of work through small public works under social mobilisation programme initiatives.

Instead of increasing the tax base, the government continues to add to the burden of the existing taxpayers.

Will the federal budget for 2009-10 serve its twin objectives of stabilising the economy and inducing growth with equity?

In Replicating Dreams, the author looks at the manner in which the Pakistan-based Kashf Foundation has, while adapting the Bangladesh-based Grameen Bank model, tailored its policies to suit its own specific requirements.

In this day and age of bad eating habits, and with the rising cost of medical bills, a comprehensive health insurance package seems like a most obvious investment. AsiaCare, a health and life insurance company, was officially launched on May 21 with a press conference followed by a question-and-answer session.