Daily Times

No matter how difficult the strand of social sciences that deals with the economy is, it matters the most for every living being across the globe. From bread to shelter, and poverty to prosperity, nothing moves without the concerns of the people for the economy of the state. Therefore, it is necessary that we first dissect the word “ECONOMY,” because, without that, we will not understand the concept and scientific development it has undergone since the day of Give and Take between humans started.

It is dependent on the Environment in which global commerce is taking place. It gives options to the states to curtail their non-development expenditures and avoid over-expenditures to manage their hard-earned Money for the well-being of the people on a year-on-year basis, without which no short-medium or long-term policy can be crafted.

Formulating a long-term economic policy is a highly imaginative and scientific job that cannot be handled properly, either by the least educated politicians, professional soldiers, or even a combination of the two. Short-term ad hoc measures may be undertaken by accountants, but medium to long terms economic plans must be prepared by the economists, only. However, it is not necessary that an economist must become a Chief Executive of the state, but an accomplished economist must be made responsible to craft and execute the economy of the state.

The grapevine about forgoing our nuclear assets to avoid economic default is absurd.

Unfortunately, Pakistan’s economy is being handled by neo-economists for a long time now. Sometimes, somebody who did well as a CEO of a private business giant becomes a finance minister, and sometimes a Chartered Accountant becomes a finance minister. At another time, a banker of international repute will become in charge of the economy or a local banker will be made to manage the economy of such a large country. No wonder, international institutions and lending agencies keep on harping on the mantra that Pakistan must restructure its economy. However, they are failing in their efforts because they do not know that our financial managers do not know what is meant by the restructuring of the economy. All they know is to change the figures at the insistence of donor agencies, perhaps it is happening now as I write.

It pains me to give the example of India, but it is a fact that it was an economist, Dr Manmohan Singh, who turned around the Indian economy. Singh was Governor of the Reserve Bank of India from 1982-85 and did not have a serious political ambition, but amid serious economic crises, India’s then Prime Minister Narasimha Rao appointed Singh as the finance minister in 1991. Within five years, Singh made numerous structural changes in India’s isolationist economy, to the path of an open economy. Recognizing Singh’s brilliance and contributions, Singh was made Prime Minister by the Congress leader, Sonia Gandhi in 2004. Singh completed two 5-year terms in office.

Contrarily, Pakistan’s economy remains at the mercy of donors’ generosity, due to which it has become highly indebted, and therefore vulnerable to exploitation by international financial institutions (IFIs). Perhaps, I have written before also that, “A country without economic independence is at the mercy of the donor institutions or friendly countries, and cannot take independent decisions, even if is about its most important national interests.” The grapevine about forgoing our nuclear assets to avoid economic default is absurd, and must immediately be refuted by our security establishment that has spent so much effort in building its security architecture around it.

While we have failed to ensure human security and the well-being of the people, let’s not play with the territorial integrity of the state for the sake of domestic politics, and that could only be possible if economic security is given in the hands of professionals at the earliest. I think we have already done a lot of experiments with this poor country and its people, though Allah had Blessed this land with numerous Bounties: fertile land, glacial mountains, warm waters, the most favourable climate, extremely hardworking and industrious young populace. One fails to understand how have we landed in this situation while we had everything that many nations may not have.

Since I am not an economist, therefore, I am not proposing economic measures, but as a student of political science, I can suggest to the incumbent regime that hand over the economic matters to the professionals on priority. There are numerous avenues that this country offers, and if exploited by the professional, we may probably be able to quickly recover from this morass.

Perhaps, an economic reorientation may be required, which is export growth-oriented, with value addition to agricultural produce, industrial output, services promotion, and technologically motivated. Trust me, it is still doable, In Sha Allah.

The writer of this article has authored two international books: “Nuclear Deterrence and Conflict Between India and Pakistan” and “South Asia Needs Hybrid Peace.”