Why is it that our neighbours are progressing so fast and we, Pakistanis, are far behind them?
HYDERABAD: The American business magazine, Forbes, is well-known for its finance and business-related articles as well as for the information it provides on the world’s billionaires. On its list of the world’s billionaires, I noticed recently that there was not a single Pakistani. Meanwhile, our neighbours India and China have many of their nationals on the list. Mukesh Ambani, Dilip Shanghvi, Azim Premji, Shiv Nagar and Lakshmi Mitthal all hail from India while Jack Ma, Wang Jianlin, Li Hejun, Ma Huetang, Robin Li and Lei Jun from China are all placed in the top 100 billionaires of the world, according to the magazine. Why is it that our neighbours are progressing so fast and we, Pakistanis, are far behind them?
My personal analysis is that due to the lack of opportunities in our country, most of our talented individuals prefer to move abroad. There is no doubt that our people have the potential and ability to touch the skies but, unfortunately, our politicians don’t give any importance to creating investment opportunities in Pakistan.
The limited opportunities that do exist are also being destroyed by them. The lack of proper infrastructure and of proper facilities are the main reasons for the lack of high-standard work opportunities within the country. It is impossible for our people to make it to the top 100 billionaires list in Forbes as Pakistani citizens, but it is possible for anyone adopting a different nationality, like Shahid Khan, the Pakistani-American businessman, whose net worth is $4.2 billion. Of course, this realisation applies to ordinary Pakistanis, not to the politicians who siphon off the country’s limited resources to purchase assets abroad.
Ali Salman Andani
Published in The Express Tribune, November 6th, 2015.
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