The country’s renewable energy potential is particularly noteworthy. Pakistan possesses substantial solar resources across much of its territory. Hydropower remains underdeveloped relative to its long-term potential. Wind energy projects have demonstrated promising results in several regions. Combined with improvements in transmission infrastructure and energy storage technologies, these resources could support future digital growth. Another opportunity […]
The AI Arms Race Runs on Electricity, Not Algorithms (Part I)
The world has spent the last few years obsessing over artificial intelligence. Headlines have been dominated by breakthroughs in large language models, increasingly sophisticated chatbots, autonomous systems, and the race among technology giants to build ever more powerful AI platforms. Governments are drafting AI strategies, investors are pouring billions into AI startups, and corporate executives […]
The Global Middle Class Is Being Replaced by Two Classes: Owners and Renters
For decades, the middle class represented the psychological backbone of modern capitalism. It was the class that worked, saved, invested cautiously, bought homes, educated children, planned retirements, and believed that discipline would eventually translate into stability. Governments proudly measured their expansion as proof of economic success. Banks built products around it. Politicians campaigned in its […]
The Next Recession Will Wear a Tie
For generations, recessions carried a familiar image. Factories slowed down, construction sites went silent, truck drivers lost routes, and industrial workers lined up outside closed plants hoping for shifts that never came. Economic downturns were often visualized through smokeless chimneys, rusting machinery, and labourers carrying lunch boxes back home earlier than usual. White-collar professionals, meanwhile, […]
The War That Made Traders Rich
Wars once destroyed stock markets. Today, they energize them. That may sound morally disturbing, but modern financial markets no longer react to conflict the way they did decades ago. In the past, wars primarily represented uncertainty, destruction, and economic slowdown. Investors rushed toward safety, business confidence collapsed, and economies braced for prolonged instability. In 2026, […]
The End of Globalisation Wasn’t Announced — It Just Started Charging Tariffs
For nearly three decades, the world was told a seductive story: borders would matter less, trade would make wars obsolete, supply chains would connect humanity, and economic interdependence would create stability. Factories shifted to Asia, consumers in the West enjoyed cheap products, corporations maximised profits through global outsourcing, and economists celebrated the age of hyper-globalisation […]
The Dead Capital
There is a peculiar contradiction at the heart of Pakistan’s economy. In a country starved of investment, plagued by low productivity, and perpetually negotiating with lenders, trillions of rupees sit frozen-untouched, unproductive, and celebrated. This capital is not hidden in offshore accounts or complex financial instruments. It is visible, fenced, advertised, and proudly owned. It […]
The Business of Waiting: How Pakistan Profits from Delay
In Pakistan, delay is not a flaw in the system-it is the system. Files do not move slowly by accident; they move slowly because movement has a price. Time, in this economy, is not neutral. It is monetised, negotiated, and often weaponised. What looks like inefficiency is, in reality, a parallel economy where waiting generates […]
Degrees, Dreams & Dead Ends
In a modest household somewhere in Lahore, a young graduate wakes up not to opportunity, but to uncertainty. His degree, framed proudly on the wall, once symbolised hope-not just for him, but for his entire family. Years of tuition fees, sleepless nights, and parental sacrifices were invested in that piece of paper. Today, it hangs […]
Cities That Sell, Not Build
Pakistan doesn’t build cities anymore-it sells them, plot by plot, file by file, promise by promise. What appears on glossy brochures as “urban development” is, in reality, a highly refined mechanism of capital parking, speculative trading, and cash recycling. The skyline may show cranes and billboards, but beneath the surface, the economic DNA of Pakistan’s […]