TORONTO, Oct 3: State Bank Governor Dr Ishrat Husain has cautioned that while Pakistan has clearly emerged as one of the top ten reformers in the world, the road ahead of it is ‘arduous and torturous’.
“The imperatives of globalized economy demand that we should remain agile, dynamic and capable of competing with the rest of the world while taking care that one third of Pakistan’s population living below the poverty line is uplifted,” he said while speaking at a dinner of Canada-based Pakistani Professionals Forum (PFF) here the other day. The dinner was attended among others by Pakistani High Commissioner for Canada Shahid Malik, Consul General Ghalib Iqbal and Wajid Ali Khan, a member of Canada’s House of Commons. Also present on the occasion was Syed Ali Raza, President of National Bank of Pakistan who too delivered a lecture on banking reforms in Pakistan.
Dr Husain discussed at length Pakistan’s development challenges for the coming decade and sought help of overseas Pakistanis who, he said, could make valuable contributions as was done by the Indians and Chinese living and working in foreign countries.
He pointed out that groups of enlightened overseas Indians and Chinese had not only established institutions of higher learning in their countries of origin, such as the Indian Business School at Hyedarabd set up in collaboration with Kellog School at Northwestern University and Carnegie-Mellon, but they are also helping the existing institutions of learning and healthcare.
He said: “Some of the overseas Pakistanis are helping the Aga Khan University or the Shaukat Khanum Hospital but we need more of such quality institutions dispersed all over the country. We need them not only in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad but also in Peshawar, Quetta, Hyderabad, Sukkur, Bahawalpur, Multan, Sialkot and Faisalabad.”
He further said: “Those of you who belong to these areas owe it to your hometowns to get together and help some of these educational and healthcare institutions at these places acquire eminence in the delivery of these services.”
The State Bank governor also stressed the need for setting up of scholarship funds by organizations of overseas Pakistanis enabling some talented students of their country to study for advanced degrees in science, engineering and technology at top elite universities in North America.
“There is always an apprehension that these scholars, if they are good, will not return to Pakistan upon completion of their studies. But there is no harm if they acquire practical experience in their fields as today’s world is characterized by brain circulation rather than brain drain,” he said.
Ali Raza in his speech said that with the reform process, Pakistan had emerged on the international scene as a country with vast opportunities.
“We may not have the best structure in the world but today Pakistan has certainly the most liberal and investor-friendly environment,” he added.