Daily Times

With Q3 numbers in, many of the federal banks are seeing themselves on a trail towards the end of an invisible inflation crisis. With promising job growth in the US, while a relatively successful-though turbulent-price level settlement for the UK, the Global economy is back on track for growth. In Pakistan, the economy is facing a tough inflation crisis, but promising numbers are to come for Q4 growth after currency stabilisation and other such regulatory policies adopted by the freshman government.

Pakistan, arguably since 1947-has always been in a state of turmoil, mostly on economic bases, in this strive to make people’s day-to-day lives better and prosperous. This ideology quickly shifted heading out of the ’90s and into the 2000s. There has been a different national order ever since-and the fading aim of public welfare seems to be limited to newspaper articles and the deterrent public studies.

There is no doubt, that there has been substantial financial progress in Pakistan in the last decade, and a huge shift to the digital economy, which is to unlock more than 9 trillion rupees, for growth in the country. The issue with that statement is that it provides growth for the country, and not development. The difference between financial growth and economic development is hardly ever mentioned, but when it is, the idea that there has been progress is barely the case.

At the end of the day, all of these numbers for quarterly progress are just numbers. They could be but are not representative of actual on-ground human development, in the region. Let’s be honest. It’s about how the economy affects people, how kind it is to the consumer, and not to the turbulent gloominess of GDP numbers.

Mahbub ul Haq’s idea of Human Development Index will always stand out as a step forward for many in the economic sector.

Over three decades ago, Mahbub ul Haq introduced this idea to the general public and the administration to focus on the drivers of the economy-the people. He is accredited to many things including his ever-so-popular taxation policies and the creation of the five-year plan, but his Human Development Index will always stand out as a step forward for many in the economic sector.

The HDI takes in a combination of life expectancy, education, and per capita income indicators, which make up the indication of the Range of inequities.

Haq, back in the ’80s made this index, not to point out the discrepancies in national policies, but to direct attention towards how policy change could bring a substantial difference to social crashes, and poverty in the country. Today, it stands as the power of a mere report, truth-infused, but worthless in ways. For the 2021-2022 Financial year, Pakistan dropped seven points in the index and made its way to 161 out of 192, and Switzerland is at the top of the list with the least disparities between income, and living standards.

This is just proof of how inconsistent governments over time have been. Haq campaigned on the idea that much of the economic growth revolved around rich families, and industrialists in Pakistan, and it never actually trickled down to the poverty-alleviated. In his article, Miftah Ismail, the former Finance minister for Pakistan, noted that “A successful economy keeps giving rise to new entrepreneurs, representing newly emerging industries and technologies, becoming its richest people. But not here in Pakistan where wealth, power and opportunities are strictly limited to an unchanging elite.” He charted this image of how Pakistan always makes it back to square one-the rich.

From the striving entrepreneur to the hard-working labour force, wealth and assets belong to decades-old established businesses and individuals, a stark image for the working class, if the country was to continue with the same policies. Ever since the start of the Pandemic, Businesses have been starting to move away from general resourcing, and are re-distributing their assets in a less volatile structure allowing much of the business sector to dysfunctional. But these are only the businesses found by newer entrepreneurs, with only skills to offer for their firm. They rarely have strong oligarch connections, and therefore will inevitably end up at a vulnerable place with another unforeseen crisis looming.

Some people, including many Pakistani economists, call Haq a socialist, because of his financial deregulation policies and high taxation for the wealthy. In the national archive, the second 5-year plan’s details are secured as a study of behaviour, but hardly ever used. I got my hands on excerpts from the plan as follows: “The corporations have been set up to supplement and encourage private enterprise… (Therefore) corporations should increasingly reduce their dependence on the government”.

In no way, was Haq a socialist. He wanted systemic change in the economy for dynamic alterations in the measures of poverty indices, to help the average man in his pursuit of an equal life to his neighbour. Top-class education, and vigorous training programmes, all belong to the universally wealthy blocking a bid for anyone below that certain “class”, to be side-lined. The moment the country moves beyond political divisiveness, individuals and leaders can make the country a better place for people of all backgrounds to rise, and make them economically stable, not for the sake of a mere digit on the HDI, but to make good on a promise on life, liberty and constancy for all.

The writer is a columnist and a linguistic activist.