Pakistanis are hoping their new prime minister will roll out high-profile projects that became his party’s trademark in its political heartland of Punjab, but the nation’s dire finances threaten the optimism. The Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) won huge popularity and a reputation for getting things done with a series of big-ticket schemes over the past five years in Punjab, the country’s richest, most populous province. But populist projects do not come cheap and Pakistan is in a dire financial predicament, with a fiscal deficit in 2012 of 8.5 percent of GDP and growth in 2013 forecast at 3.5 percent. Read More
