ISLAMABAD, Nov 10: The Planning Commission has constituted a task force, which will be jointly headed by Shahid Javed Burki and Razzak Dawood, for the development of private sector.

This was announced by Deputy Chairman Planning Commission Salman Farooqui while addressing the faculty and students of the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE) here on Monday.

“A search for a new development paradigm to steer the country’s economic growth is a pressing imperative,” added Mr Farooqui, who is also chancellor of the PIDE.

He said the commission was actively engaged in preparing a strategy to adequately address the real needs of the people. “Our aim is to ensure growth and development with a human face,” he asserted.

He said that there were challenges both on the domestic and international front and the dominant global economic paradigm was under serious threat in the face of an unprecedented financial crisis.

Developing countries, he said, after a serious bout of high oil and commodity prices could not remain unaffected by this financial crunch and the very fundamentals of unfettered globalisation and capitalism, driven purely by market considerations, were fast unravelling.

“Pakistan is no exception. We are facing similar challenges. The development strategy followed in the recent past failed to benefit ordinary people and ignored the agriculture sector. It was a consumption rather than investment and production-led strategy. It, therefore, turned out to be unsustainable,” he elaborated.

He said one of the important initiatives in operationalising the new strategy of development was the strengthening of the Planning Commission with the induction of new advisers and members who are leading specialists with rich international experience in their respective fields.

“My aim is to build the Planning Commission into a ‘Knowledge Commission’. We have set up a number of task forces including on food security, climate change, social sectors, infrastructure and energy. A Panel of Economists has already been established to help us devise a home-grown stabilisation programme and a medium-term development strategy,” he resolved.

Mr Farooqui also announced that the land which was earmarked for PIDE in the capital had been officially offered to the institute by the Capital Development Authority.