Budget for FY 2025-26 arrives at a critical juncture
The federal budget for FY 2025-26 arrives at a critical juncture. As Pakistan grapples with economic fragility, youth unemployment and declining investor confidence, the technology sector still offers one of the few credible paths towards sustainable growth. But even this promise risks fading, choked by a familiar cycle of lofty declarations with little follow-through.
For years, slogans like Digital Pakistan, IT exports and Startup Pakistan have echoed across stages and press conferences. Yet these remain ceremonial, rarely backed by budgetary or institutional commitment. The FY26 budget, like many before it, acknowledges the sector but stops short of empowering it.
References to digitisation and startups are there but feel like afterthoughts. There is no substantial allocation to expand fibre broadband or improve rural connectivity. These are foundational requirements for any meaningful digital economy. The Universal Service Fund remains underpowered. Key areas such as artificial intelligence, cloud computing and cybersecurity are barely acknowledged. These are not futuristic ambitions. They are current global imperatives.
Biogas blaze exposes Karachi’s waste shortage
As many as 417 million gallons per day (mgd) of domestic effluent and 80mgd of untreated industrial wastewater are being dumped into the sea and coastal areas of Karachi due to a lack of comprehensive collection and treatment facilities for domestic sewage and industrial wastewater. The entire sewage, after going through different drainage channels including the Lyari and Malir rivers, ultimately goes into the sea. The information to this effect was provided by the Sindh Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) to the Sindh High Court (SHC) on Wednesday.
This has resulted in polluting the marine environment and posing a threat to marine life. The more dangerous threat of the accumulation of sewage and decomposable solid waste into the marine environment is the decomposition of such organic waste and the production of biogas underneath the silt and sand.
Digitalisation: avenues, challenges
The global financial landscape is undergoing a profound transformation with the advent of digital currencies, mobile banking, and fintech innovations. These advancements are reshaping economies by promoting financial inclusion, enhancing transparency, and reducing reliance on cash-based transactions. In Pakistan, a country with a significant cash-based economy, the push toward digitalisation of currency and financial inclusion is gaining momentum. The government and financial regulators, led by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), have introduced policies and regulations to encourage digital payments and discourage cash transactions. These efforts aim to modernise the economy, combat the informal sector, and integrate millions of unbanked individuals into the formal financial system.
However, the transition to a digital economy is not without challenges, including infrastructural limitations, regulatory complexities, and socio-economic barriers. This article explores the digitalisation of currency in Pakistan, its role in promoting financial inclusion, the laws and regulations designed to reduce cash usage, and the advantages and disadvantages of this shift.
Financial inclusion, a key objective of digitalisation, aims to provide affordable and accessible financial services to underserved and unbanked populations.
Crisis of water – myth or reality
Shortage of water is now posing an existential threat to Pakistan in multiple dimensions. The widespread protests we observed in Sindh a few weeks back regarding six canals are just one example. The more serious dimension of the issue can be observed by Pakistan’s unequivocal declaration that India’s implementation of its recent absolutely illegal intimation of putting the Indus Waters treaty in abeyance would be considered as an act of war.
Both the above reactions make complete sense, when we realise that per capita freshwater availability in Pakistan has declined from 5,260 cubic metres in 1951 to around 900 cubic metres and is projected to decrease to 560 cubic metres by 2050.
Chicken, garlic prices dip as weekly SPI falls 0.11pc
The Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) for the week ending June 12, 2025, recorded a slight decline of 0.11 percent, mainly due to lower prices of key food items like chicken and garlic, according to data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).
Chicken prices dropped sharply by 11.32 percent, while garlic declined by 5.69 percent. Other decreases were seen in pulse mash (1.14 percent), pulse masoor (0.43 percent), pulse gram (0.21 percent), cooking oil (5 litres), and vegetable ghee (2.5 kg), both down 0.20 percent. Wheat flour dropped by 0.05 percent, and LPG by 0.02 percent.
However, prices of several vegetables surged. Tomatoes increased by 19.73 percent, potatoes by 9.11 percent, onions by 3.23 percent, and bananas by 2.25 percent. Increases were also recorded in powdered milk (0.73 percent), eggs (0.67 percent), gur (0.52 percent), curd and basmati broken rice (0.25 percent each), vegetable ghee (1 kg) (0.20 percent), sugar (0.18 percent), and pulse moong (0.15 percent).
Of the 51 essential items monitored, prices of 15 items (29.41 percent) rose, 9 items (17.65 percent) declined, and 27 items (52.94 percent) remained unchanged.
On a year-on-year basis, the SPI registered a 1.41 percent decrease. Major declines were recorded in onions (61.86 percent), Q1 electricity charges (41.63 percent), garlic (30.99 percent), tomatoes (22.87 percent), pulse mash (19.18 percent), and branded tea (17.93 percent). Other notable drops included potatoes (16.49 percent), wheat flour (14.10 percent), chicken (8.04 percent), pulse masoor (6.13 percent), diesel (5.68 percent), and petrol (5.41 percent).
In contrast, significant annual increases were seen in ladies’ sandals (55.62 percent), eggs (31.41 percent), pulse moong (30.53 percent), powdered milk (24.73 percent), and sugar (23.76 percent). Prices also rose for bananas (16.18 percent), beef (15.75 percent), various types of vegetable ghee, firewood (10.81 percent), lawn fabric (10.45 percent), and cooked daal (9.90 percent).