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Dr Ikramul Haq

Dr Ikramul Haq

The Friday Times

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Devolution without representation—I Redrawing power before fixing the vote

Devolution without representation—I Redrawing power before fixing the vote

If elections remain disputed, political parties remain internally undemocratic, campaign finance remains opaque, elected representatives escape...

latest 20

Minute Mirror

Dr. Ikramul Haq

Afghanistan’s Curse Was Manufactured–And Now Haunts Its Makers

Afghanistan’s Curse Was Manufactured–And Now Haunts Its Makers

Afghanistan is not cursed because copper lies beneath Logar, lapis beneath Badakhshan or iron beneath Bamiyan. It has been cursed by political choices...

latest 20

The Friday Times

Dr. Ikramul Haq

From “A Clean Break” To Endless War: How Preventive War Shaped A New Security Doctrine

From “A Clean Break” To Endless War: How Preventive War Shaped A New Security Doctrine

The latest US-Iran exchange and Benjamin Netanyahu's avowed shift from containment to persistent prevention make the 1996 strategy paper newly...

05.09.2026 30

The Friday Times

Dr. Ikramul Haq

Redrawing Pakistan?—II Political census before constitutional cartography

Redrawing Pakistan?—II Political census before constitutional cartography

Pakistan must decide how a revised NFC would treat population, poverty, revenue effort, inverse density and other needs before—not after—new...

04.09.2026 30

Minute Mirror

Dr. Ikramul Haq

Rethinking development—IV Asia’s next growth story & Pakistan’s missing foundations

Rethinking development—IV Asia’s next growth story & Pakistan’s missing foundations

Asia’s next growth story cannot be imported; Pakistan must acquire the institutions with which to write its own. “Asia’s Next Growth Story.”...

04.09.2026 40

Minute Mirror

Dr. Ikramul Haq

Liberal Democracy Prevented In Pakistan, It Never Exploded

Acemoglu’s working-class liberalism explains why mature democracies are losing legitimacy. Pakistan presents a harder problem: constitutional...

31.08.2026 40

The Friday Times

Dr. Ikramul Haq

Blue Passports And Inheritance Of Privilege

Pakistan’s blue-passport controversy should be read through a short chronology of expanding privileges on the part of militro-judicial-civil complex...

29.08.2026 30

The Friday Times

Dr. Ikramul Haq

Makkah Pact: Strategic Autonomy In An Age Of Disorder

The Saudi Arabia-Türkiye-Pakistan agreement should not be confused with a “Muslim NATO”. Its deeper significance lies in the search for a...

22.08.2026 100

The Friday Times

Dr. Ikramul Haq

79th Independence Day Reflections

“Small nations have always struggled against more powerful ones for their freedom. The whole history of humankind is a struggle of the oppressed...

14.08.2026 70

The Friday Times

Dr. Ikramul Haq

Delays In Tax Tribunal: Judgements Reserved, Forgotten And Reheard

A taxpayer who misses a statutory deadline may lose the right of appeal, face recovery proceedings, pay default surcharge and suffer penalties. What...

08.08.2026 40

The Friday Times

Dr. Ikramul Haq

When Liquidity Becomes A Substitute For Reform: The Political Economy Of PSO’s Crisis

Pakistan’s primary maritime energy corridors are currently affected by the regional conflict. The Strait of Hormuz has been blocked since the...

01.08.2026 60

The Friday Times

Dr. Ikramul Haq

Pakistan’s Hardest Battle: Effective National Strategy For Lasting Peace

Pakistan is once again counting its dead people. Soldiers, police officers, other law-enforcement personnel and civilians are being killed across...

25.07.2026 60

The Friday Times

Dr. Ikramul Haq

War, Oil And New Geopolitics: Can Pakistan Convert Crisis Into Strategic Opportunity?

When the first missiles were fired on February 28, 2026, many observers hoped that the conflict would remain geographically confined and...

17.07.2026 90

The Friday Times

Dr. Ikramul Haq

Parliamentary Privilege, Article 19A And Limits Of Executive: Can FBR Hide Behind Confidentiality Shield?

“The committee had earlier directed the FBR during the previous meeting to submit complete details of taxes assessed, collected, and pending from...

10.07.2026 40

The Friday Times

Dr. Ikramul Haq

Money Bills In Federations: Has Pakistan Reduced The Senate To A Spectator?

“The 1973 Constitution introduced a bicameral legislature. Equal representation given to all provinces in the Senate was intended to give a measure...

04.07.2026 60

The Friday Times

Dr. Ikramul Haq

Underneath Global War On Drugs: Profits, Power And Narcoterrorism

June 26 marks the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC),...

27.06.2026 70

The Friday Times

Dr. Ikramul Haq

Can Technology Fix Pakistan’s Broken Tax System?

The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) is once again being reinvented! The proposed transformation plan envisages a three-wing structure separating audit,...

20.06.2026 100

The Friday Times

Dr. Ikramul Haq

Budget, State, Taxes And Human Rights

As we approach the 80th anniversary of the negotiations that led to the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights, it is a good time to...

13.06.2026 70

The Friday Times

Dr. Ikramul Haq

Budget 2026-27: Tax Agricultural Rent, Not Farmers

Only “agricultural income” as defined in the Constitution falls within the legislative competence of the provinces, while all other activities of...

06.06.2026 100

The Friday Times

Dr. Ikramul Haq

Strait Of Hormuz Exemplifies Crisis Of Modern Jurisprudence

Let me offer a rule that peacemakers have long understood. “Peace through strength” is an oxymoron. Soft power directed towards maintaining and...

30.05.2026 70

The Friday Times

Dr. Ikramul Haq

When Courts Suspend Recovery, Can FBR Still Levy “Default Surcharge”?

“A collection of tax where it is not due is as detestable as its non-payment when it is due.” — Nasim Sikander J, in CIT Companies, Lahore v...

23.05.2026 70

The Friday Times

Dr. Ikramul Haq

Export-Led Growth Or Fiscal Self-Harm?

The joint recommendations presented on May 12, 2026, by the country’s leading textile and export associations to the Federal Finance Minister,...

16.05.2026 50

The Friday Times

Dr. Ikramul Haq

Section 7E Was Never About Income Tax

“….we are persuaded to hold that Section 7E of the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001, is ultra vires the Constitution, and is accordingly struck down,...

09.05.2026 50

The Friday Times

Dr. Ikramul Haq

Super Tax Detailed Judgement: Constitution’s Breaking Point

“Section 4C is a distinct charge on a distinctly defined base of income, and takes nothing away from the charge of tax under Section 4 or from the...

02.05.2026 90

The Friday Times

Dr. Ikramul Haq

Pakistan’s Tax Problem Is Structural, Not Just High Rates

“An ideal tax system should consist of the lowest possible tax rate on the broadest possible tax base”— Ibn Khaldun (1332–1406) in Muqaddimah...

25.04.2026 80

The Friday Times

Dr. Ikramul Haq

Super Tax: Mounting Controversies And Mad Rush To Unconstitutional Extraction

The gravest error in the FCC’s order lies in its implicit acceptance that the term ‘income’, as envisaged under the Constitution of the Islamic...

18.04.2026 100

The Friday Times

Dr. Ikramul Haq

From Ceasefire To Sustainable Peace: Converting Diplomatic Success Into Economic Prosperity

In the course of the next several decades, a functioning structure of global cooperation, based on geopolitical realities, could thus emerge and...

11.04.2026 150

The Friday Times

Dr. Ikramul Haq

From Détente To Armageddon: How Global Arms Economy Feeds Permanent Conflict

Chinese aid to Iran and Pakistan is of more immediate regional and geopolitical significance to China, but that also does not provide the point of...

04.04.2026 70

The Friday Times

Dr. Ikramul Haq

Diplomacy Without Geo-Economic Sovereignty

“Islamabad’s outreach to both Washington and Tehran — including contacts between the Pakistan Prime Minister and American officials — suggests...

28.03.2026 100

The Friday Times

Dr. Ikramul Haq

Iran Conflict And The Return Of Great Power Politics

Armies fight for a people; armies fight for a nation. Armies fight for a way of life. And that is what we are defending: a great civilisation that has...

21.03.2026 150

The Friday Times

Dr. Ikramul Haq

Why Secrecy Around Lawmakers’ Wealth Threatens Pakistan’s Democracy

14.03.2026 80

The Friday Times

Dr. Ikramul Haq

How The US-Israel Assault On Iran Endangers World Peace

“President Trump has also been very consistent. Crazy regimes like Iran, hell-bent upon Islamic delusions, cannot have nuclear weapons. It is common...

07.03.2026 100

The Friday Times

Dr. Ikramul Haq

Pakistan’s Export Tax Shift: How Advance Revenue Extraction Threatens Industrial Growth

In periods of fiscal stress, states often confront a choice: either reform the structure of revenue generation or intensify extraction from the most...

28.02.2026 80

The Friday Times

Dr. Ikramul Haq

Pakistan’s Tax Trap: How High Taxes Without Welfare Are Strangling Growth

“We are not a welfare state; we lack the institutional nervous system, the documentation, and the moral contract to sustain one. Yet, our fiscal...

21.02.2026 150

The Friday Times

Dr Ikramul Haq

Why Faiz still matters in our transactional world

At first glance, Faiz Ahmad Faiz may appear distant from the hard arithmetic of today’s world—markets, balance sheets, power blocs, and economic...

15.02.2026 150

Business Recorder

Dr Ikramul Haq

Fallacies behind super tax validation

“Power to levy taxes is a sine qua non for a State. In fact, it is an attribute of sovereignty of a State…it must be exercised strictly in...

11.02.2026 70

Business Recorder

Dr Ikramul Haq

Balochistan’s Crisis: How Denial, Security Policy And Injustice Undermine Pakistan

09.02.2026 100

The Friday Times

Dr Ikramul Haq

When Income Is Taxed Twice: Constitutional Limits And The Super Tax Debate

07.02.2026 60

The Friday Times

Dr Ikramul Haq

Super Tax, Senate Bypass, And The FCC’s Constitutional Misreading

31.01.2026 80

The Friday Times

Dr Ikramul Haq

Constitution, Gilgit-Baltistan And FBR: When Administration Replaces Citizenship

24.01.2026 100

The Friday Times

Dr Ikramul Haq

Pakistan’s Low-Growth Trap: Why Debt, Taxes, And Reform Narratives Keep Failing

17.01.2026 90

The Friday Times

Dr Ikramul Haq

Pakistan’s Fiscal Crisis: Debt, Tax Failures, And The Urgent Need For 2026 Reforms - Part 2

10.01.2026 100

The Friday Times

Dr Ikramul Haq

Pakistan’s Fiscal Crisis: Debt, Tax Failures, And The Urgent Need For 2026 Reforms

03.01.2026 150

The Friday Times

Dr Ikramul Haq

Eighteenth Anniversary Of Benazir Bhutto: Resisting Militancy, Legacy Of Leadership

27.12.2025 80

The Friday Times

Dr Ikramul Haq

Pakistan’s Fiscal Crisis: NFC, Federal Overreach And the Betrayal Of Devolution

20.12.2025 90

The Friday Times

Dr Ikramul Haq

Pakistan’s Centralised Power And Historical Crises: Lessons From 1971 To Today

16.12.2025 70

The Friday Times

Dr Ikramul Haq

Pakistan’s Judiciary Faces Historic Challenges After 27th Amendment

13.12.2025 70

The Friday Times

Dr Ikramul Haq

Pakistan’s Judiciary: From Resistance To Relapse And Constitutional Weakening

06.12.2025 70

The Friday Times

Dr Ikramul Haq

Pakistan’s 26th And 27th Amendments: A Grave Threat To Judicial Independence

29.11.2025 70

The Friday Times

Dr Ikramul Haq

Taxation, Black Money, And Informal Economy: Strategies For Pakistan’s Economic Growth

22.11.2025 80

The Friday Times

Dr Ikramul Haq