The country is going through a very difficult time. Sadly, we cannot blame anyone but ourselves. Before 1990 India and Bangladesh were both economically behind Pakistan. What has happened in 30 years that we are on the verge of default, and there is hopelessness and despair? It’s time for introspection; blaming external factors and the usual suspect like the west is not an answer.

Pakistan has a very large young population and unless we channelise the activities of this group in the right direction, we cannot grow and prosper. As a country to need to face the reality that we don’t have a lot of natural resources, our population is not competitively educated, and we are unable to compete in the world. We are stuck between socialism and capitalism, and we are neither of the two. Let’s us decide what we want to be, remaining in the middle will create an existential threat.

I believe we have no choice but to go the capitalist route. We must reduce the role of the state in all economic activities to a regulator only for fair play. We need to spend money on education to prepare for the future, and leaders must be bold in accepting this reality.

Pleasing all corridors is going to annoy everybody and no one will be happy. The writing is on the wall, the longer we wait to make the tough decisions the more difficult they will become to take.

Published in Dawn, The Business and Finance Weekly, January 2nd, 2023