2 hours ago
6
ARTICLE AD BOX
Instead of dealing with the crises plaguing the economic and political domains, the state looks like it would prefer to continue living with them instead.
By now, it should be abundantly clear that the authorities in
Pakistan
are not going to do anything to address the core dysfunctions that have dragged its economy down over the decades. They would prefer to learn to live with these dysfunctions.
And one of the ways to do this is to increase the coercive powers of the state.
For decades, an agenda for change and reform has been advanced to help Pakistan’s state and economy adapt to a changing world. The agenda involved broadening the base of taxation and of exports, unlocking the productivity potential of the economy, strengthening the regulatory environment, documenting the economy and its transactions, reducing the role of speculation and manipulation in the stock market, improving judicial outcomes and access to justice as well as the legal framework for business, and so on.
It was the long, hard road of reform that was supposed to safeguard the next generation of livelihoods and secure the prosperity of the common citizenry in a changing world.
English (US) ·