Express Tribune Editorials 1st June 2025

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Another gold for Nadeem

While Pakistan's cricket scene struggles on the international stage, Olympic champion Arshad Nadeem — hailing from the small village of Mian Channu in Punjab — continues to offer victorious morsels of hope for the nation's sporting future. Nadeem has just won gold in the men's javelin final at the 2025 Asian Athletics Championship, with a mighty 86.4 metre throw.

This historic win marks only the third time Pakistan has claimed gold at the championship, ending a 55-year drought since Muhammad Younis' victory in the 800-metre race in 1973.

Nadeem's triumphs not only cement his place as a national hero but also continually highlight much-needed dialogue about the potential of Pakistani athletes that has long been neglected. Nadeem's Olympic win itself was nothing short of a miraculous testament to the power of community support.

His journey into javelin throwing started off with humble beginnings and makeshift equipment. Weight-training equipment was improvised and crowdfunded, with the help of a journalist who initiated the campaign.

While these stories make for an inspiring and heartwarming tale of an underdog rising to international stadiums, there are thousands of children across the country dreaming to be athletes who are instead forced to give up.

Pakistan not only lacks professional training centres for athletes but also falls significantly short in supporting its national talent through adequate sponsorships and funding. This systemic neglect has left many promising athletes to rely on personal grit, or often sheer luck.

Yet, Arshad Nadeem's recurrent success proves that Pakistan possesses the sporting talent needed to excel on international stages. He stands as a testament to the power of hard work, discipline, and passion for a dream. The recent win is, again, a landmark achievement that inspires a new generation to believe in greatness despite all odds.


Reset with Kabul

Pakistan's relationship with the Taliban government in Afghanistan appears to be on the mend after hitting its lowest point a few months ago. While several points of contention remain between the two countries, Afghanistan appears to have put sincere efforts into ensuring that its soil was not used against Pakistan during the recent tensions with India.

To supplant India, China also appeared in the picture with offers of trade and infrastructure development to the Taliban. In return, Beijing's main demand has been for the Taliban government to make peace, or at least play friendly, with Islamabad.

Since the recent trilateral forum in Kabul, Pakistan and Afghanistan have made significant efforts to publically downplay their differences and make statements to express interest in improving relations.

Most notably, after years of refusing to take stern action against the TTP, citing their many ideological similarities, the Afghan Taliban have effectively told their 'guests' that their self-proclaimed jihad against Pakistan is illegitimate because only the emir can issue a call for jihad, and in Afghanistan, the emir is the Taliban's supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada.

The Taliban government is also learnt to have made sincere efforts - perhaps for the first time since retaking power - to capture and detain anti-Pakistan terrorists, including Afghan nationals.

All of these moves are not occurring in a vacuum. After years of official isolation, several countries have been moving towards reopening diplomatic ties with the Afghan government, including through the appointment of ambassadors and the reopening of embassies.

While many are still dragging their feet or formally recognising the Taliban government, the appointment of an ambassador is de facto recognition, as the envoy must present their credentials to the host nation's head of state.

But official or not, the biggest beneficiaries of improved ties with Pakistan and other countries are the long-suffering Afghan people.


Tax shortfall

The government's tax collection strategy has hit a shortfall — again. Despite imposing record taxes, withdrawing advances, freezing accounts and squeezing the salaried class beyond reason, the FBR missed its target by a staggering Rs1.03 trillion with just a month left in the fiscal year. To be clear: the target of Rs12.334 trillion was overly ambitious from the outset. It assumed compliance without reform, growth without relief, and revenue without restructuring.

This shortfall has come at a heavy cost to the public. The salaried class alone paid Rs437 billion in income taxes till April — a 52% increase over last year — while electricity bills and essential goods were taxed like luxuries. Meanwhile, the FBR aggressively pursued stopgap measures: illegally withdrawing funds from bank accounts, holding back refunds, and relying on tax advances to meet monthly targets.

All this, and still a miss. More alarming is the absence of structural effort. The promised recovery of arrears in litigation cases — a key part of the government's pitch — never materialised and refunds remained delayed. The FBR's reliance on punitive tactics instead of expanding the tax net is as evident as it is unsustainable. Compounding the problem is the IMF programme that guides Pakistan's fiscal policies.

By definition, the programme emphasises austerity and revenue generation over growth and investment, an approach that stifles economic activity and discourages business expansion. While the IMF's role in dictating revenue measures is undeniable, the government's own choices reflect poor prioritisation. Pakistan's tax regime continues to lean on the compliant and ignore the evaders. The FBR, ironically, continues to enjoy performance-based incentives while its core failure goes unaddressed.

The new Rs14.3 trillion target for FY26 risks becoming a recipe for disaster if fiscal prudence and a balanced approach between revenue collection and protecting the common man are not prioritised. The policymakers must rethink their approach to taxation as the economy cannot survive on extraction alone.