Words talk

To run the federal government for the year 2025-2026, a budgeted (expense) amount of $ 62B * would be required. This is almost similar to last year** . How will the money be spent? Almost half of the expense is paying off the interest on past loans. Of these interest payments, the vast majority, i.e. 88%, are used to servicing local debt such as the ones taken to meet the deficit through certificates, bonds and other similar financial tools. External loans interest pay-offs are adjusted with the release of new loans. More in detail on that in revenue & deficit-funding.  Ninety-four percent of the budget money is spent on expenditures listed below:  Category USD (billions) As %age of total expenses Interest Payments 29 47% General Public Service 10 17% Defence Affairs and Services 9 15% Pension 4 6% Federal PSDP 4 6% Social Protection 3 4% The reminder $ 3.7B (6%) is spent in Public Order and Safety Affairs (2%), Net (provincial) lending (1.6%), Economic affairs (1.4%), Ed...

I have to make a disclaimer before I go on: I am super fortunate to know some ‘strong independent’ males and have a few such friends too. Feels weird when used with males, huh? And I share views on gender dynamics and my own experiences with them as I share them with my female friends and they listen, they empathise and they don’t prescribe. And that’s all you expect – no one is blaming anyone, it is no ONE person’s fault; patriarchy is a product of centuries of social training of males and females. That doesn’t mean that I should stay quiet and not say a word against the unfairness I have to face because of my gender (which I am very proud of). So what’s troubling me is whether you play down being a female because it helps with career progression or be yourself to the fullest (i.e. female) and be content with mediocre growth (read: less lifetime wealth accumulation). Money isn’t everything but it is oh-so-important to pay the rent!  But how dare a privileged* woman like mys...

A few days ago, my sister tasked me to buy school books for her kids, grade third and sixth. Easy? No! Its harder to buy books than it is to buy sanitizer these days. Since no book shops are open and its mandated by the government, hence visiting them is not an option. After a few hours of calling and reaching out to my friends, I was able to get a number of a book salesperson, let’s call them Sherry. I called her and as per the protocol she verified my source and ensured I was the same person. Post which she asked for my order- simple: grade third and sixth books. After which she said she will call me back. She called back shortly, confirmed that some items of my list were short in market but rest would be available, bringing a total to PKR 10,000/-. She knew the supply-demand situation and the amount was not up for bargain. After agreeing on the amount, she said she will message me the details after completing whatever is available of my demand. I, anxiously, waited t...

--> --> As the world we live in would have it, I am also practicing social distancing and it’s not coming easy. To top it up, my social circle is super moral on containing COVID-19 by religiously self-quarantining; I am partly proud of them and partly jealous of their high self-discipline. So, these circumstances resulted in finding innovative ways of making use of all the time I have. Just to remember, ‘Work from Home (WFH)’ is live in this scenario, where you end up working more than usual days; just like women at workplaces work harder to ‘fit in’, everyone works more to prove that they are ‘actually’ taking WFH seriously. Still so much time!! So, among different productive ways to utilize my time one was reading. I have always liked reading and here I had the time to do some. I started reading a book my friend lend me called, “What I am sure of” by Oprah Winfery. It’s an easy read; compilation of short stories and learnings from her life. Half w...