Pakistan Finance Minister's Budget Speech Highlights 'Sanitary Pads'

Against the noise

THE TV was on in the background when the finance minister delivered his budget speech. The usual noise: opposition members on their feet, slogans, desk-thumping. I wasn’t listening. Then two words cut through it: ‘sanitary pads’. I put down what I was doing; the government was removing the tax on sanitary products. The finance minister had said ‘sanitary pads’ on the floor of the National Assembly, on live television, with the ease of a man reading out grain prices. The information minister t...

By [email protected] (Muna Khan)