South Asia Investor Review

Led by Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry , the judges of Pakistan Supreme Court have overturned former President Musharraf's amnesty order for 8000 top politicians, including current President Asif Ali Zardari , and declared jihad against corruption at the highest levels of government. Pakistani judiciary's battle against rampant corruption has recently escalated with the jailing of a top serving police official at the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), and the ultimatum to the anti-corruption chief of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to reopen domestic and international corruption cases against the beneficiaries of the NRO amnesty, or be prepared to go to jail. Some critics of the Supreme Court actions see the top court's recent orders against top officials as abuse of power by Mr. Iftikhar Chaudhry , the head of the unelected and independent judiciary in Pakistan. They accuse the Chaudhry court of engaging in unwarranted judicial activism designed to usurp the po...

Pakistani economy adrift with nobody in full charge: Burki * Economist says policy makers have no serious priorities, common man sees no sign of relief * Says period of high growth in Pakistan is over * Says government should not be held responsible for current wheat shortage Warns government against subsidizing energy WASHINGTON: No one is in full charge of Pakistan’s economy, while the political elite is preoccupied with the judges’ issue and power-sharing arrangements, according to Pakistani economist and financial planner Shahid Javed Burki. Burki, a former World Bank vice president and finance minister in the Moeen Qureshi caretaker government, told a meeting at the Woodrow Wilson Centre, at which he is a senior scholar, that there is a “disconnect” between the poor, whose prime concern is their next meal, and the elite. The establishment and the citizen are not on the same page, which is making the common man increasingly angry as he sees no sign of any serious attention being pa...