Pakistan must break from culture of patronage
Former Planning Commission executive suggests decentralising economic system
Former Planning Commission executive suggests decentralising economic system. PHOTO: FILE
With the economic system in Pakistan becoming stale, overly centralised and inefficient, there was a need to revamp it and decentralise it.
This was suggested by the former deputy chairman of the Planning Commission Dr Nadeemul Haque during a lecture on his recent book ‘Looking Back: How Pakistan Became an Asian Tiger by 2050’, at the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) on Tuesday.
Dr Haque suggested that a patterns-based system should be developed with a holistic approach.
Detailing the challenges to reforming the development sector, he pointed out that the academia in Pakistan was lacking research whereas the mainstream media too was ignoring development issues.
Moreover, he said that the government too was not supporting an inclusive discussion on national economic needs. As a result, no discourse could be developed which could have been fundamental for setting national goals and targets.
Dr Haque elaborated that the country was mired in a culture of patronage where merit and competition were two of the biggest causalities. In this regard, he said there was a need to encourage and adopt innovative thinking, leaving behind the thinking of the 1950s.
Moreover, he suggested that knowledge and scientific methods need to be encouraged in addition to burgeoning a consumer culture if we wanted to see a growing national economy.
He said that Pakistan needs to institute drastic bureaucratic reforms, decentralisation and thoughtful urban planning to cultivate real prospect of development.
Likewise, he suggested that the academia should be encouraged to shape up the research agenda if Pakistan wants to achieve real and lasting economic growth.
Earlier, SDPI Deputy Executive Director Dr Vaqar Ahmed elaborated that when the federal and provincial governments were gearing up to make their budgets, such deliberations had immense importance.
He termed them an opportunity for the government to revisit policies in the light of informed discussions on various budgetary aspects including the taxation system, pro-poor public investments in infrastructure and social sectors as well as developing a sustainable social safety net programme for children, women, elderly and marginalised groups.
Former Ambassador Shafqat Kakakhel suggested that the vision presented by Dr Haque should be made a part of Pakistan’s development models while some of his suggestions should have also been included in the government’s Vision 2025.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 12th, 2017.
This was suggested by the former deputy chairman of the Planning Commission Dr Nadeemul Haque during a lecture on his recent book ‘Looking Back: How Pakistan Became an Asian Tiger by 2050’, at the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) on Tuesday.
Dr Haque suggested that a patterns-based system should be developed with a holistic approach.
Detailing the challenges to reforming the development sector, he pointed out that the academia in Pakistan was lacking research whereas the mainstream media too was ignoring development issues.
Moreover, he said that the government too was not supporting an inclusive discussion on national economic needs. As a result, no discourse could be developed which could have been fundamental for setting national goals and targets.
Dr Haque elaborated that the country was mired in a culture of patronage where merit and competition were two of the biggest causalities. In this regard, he said there was a need to encourage and adopt innovative thinking, leaving behind the thinking of the 1950s.
Moreover, he suggested that knowledge and scientific methods need to be encouraged in addition to burgeoning a consumer culture if we wanted to see a growing national economy.
He said that Pakistan needs to institute drastic bureaucratic reforms, decentralisation and thoughtful urban planning to cultivate real prospect of development.
Likewise, he suggested that the academia should be encouraged to shape up the research agenda if Pakistan wants to achieve real and lasting economic growth.
Earlier, SDPI Deputy Executive Director Dr Vaqar Ahmed elaborated that when the federal and provincial governments were gearing up to make their budgets, such deliberations had immense importance.
He termed them an opportunity for the government to revisit policies in the light of informed discussions on various budgetary aspects including the taxation system, pro-poor public investments in infrastructure and social sectors as well as developing a sustainable social safety net programme for children, women, elderly and marginalised groups.
Former Ambassador Shafqat Kakakhel suggested that the vision presented by Dr Haque should be made a part of Pakistan’s development models while some of his suggestions should have also been included in the government’s Vision 2025.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 12th, 2017.