EDITORIAL (July 15, 2008): It bears repetition to argue that the coalition governments at the Centre and the provinces have deeply disappointed the people. Conceding that these bodies did inherit some intractable problems, one cannot overlook the fact that over the three months that they have been in power no worthwhile effort seems to have been made by them to come to grips with these people-specific problems.

EDITORIAL (July 15, 2008): From the perspective of the tax/utility bill payer, a shortage of resources requires the levy of additional taxes and as the easiest tax to collect is general sales tax (GST) this accounts for the heaviest reliance being placed on an increase of one percent in GST as a means of raising revenue. And gas prices have been raised for the same reason - to meet the need for additional revenue.

EDITORIAL (July 14, 2008): The trade deficit has widened to 20.74 billion dollars in 2007-08, 52.92 percent higher than the comparable figure for 2006-07. The reasons are fairly evident: a rising import bill attributed largely to a declining rupee, ever rising international price of oil, and food imports at an unprecedented level to meet the supply shortages in the country.

EDITORIAL (July 14, 2008): UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, is said to have responded positively to Pakistan's request to appoint an international commission to investigate and identify the "culprits, perpetrators, organisers and financiers" behind the assassination of Benazir Bhutto with a view to bringing them to justice.

EDITORIAL (July 13, 2008): The Overseas Pakistanis Foundation (OPF), in collaboration with the Punjab government, is working out the modalities of establishing a new 2000-acre industrial estate near Motorway (M-II) Chakri Interchange, Rawalpindi, to provide investment opportunities to overseas Pakistanis.

EDITORIAL (July 13, 2008): The report that three Texas congressmen, who recently returned from a visit to Pakistan, are suggesting US troops go in hot pursuit to attack targets inside Pakistani territory, smacks of the usual American arrogance that can only lead to counter-productive results.

EDITORIAL (July 12, 2008): Market regulators are now involved in fire fighting to protect the economy from a sudden melt-down. The Sate Bank of Pakistan has taken administrative action to reverse the steep fall of Pak rupee. The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan, had last month put in place a lock mechanism with the objective of a more orderly retreat in the market with a view to providing a necessary cooling period essential for the market to recover from the state of affair at that time.

EDITORIAL (July 12, 2008): The leaders of the eight developing Muslim nations, the D-8 - comprising the most populous countries of Indonesia, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, Egypt and Nigeria - concluded their summit in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur last Tuesday, with a joint statement terming the event "a turning point" in the ten-year history of D-8 co-operation and adopting "a ten-year roadmap and other basic documents to enhance co-operation and solidarity among ourselves."

EDITORIAL (July 11, 2008): The group of eight (G-8) most industrialised countries of the world, namely, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, Canada and the United States agreed on a number of issues in their recent round of talks in Toyako, Japan, where they were joined by the five outreach nations (India, China, Brazil, South Africa and Mexico).

EDITORIAL (July 11, 2008): Tehran seems to have come up with a reply to Israel's extensive air force exercise last month, which was seen by military experts as a 'rehearsal' of an aerial attack on Iran's uranium enrichment facility at Natanz. Then, earlier last June, Israeli air force had made a dry run of an aerial attack on a 'distant target' with the help of more than 100 F-16s and F-15s and air-refuelling tankers.