{"id":8519,"date":"2022-10-19T12:46:24","date_gmt":"2022-10-19T07:46:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/habib.edu.pk\/HU-news\/?p=8519"},"modified":"2023-04-07T11:47:13","modified_gmt":"2023-04-07T06:47:13","slug":"a-need-to-reimagine-pakistan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/habib.edu.pk\/HU-news\/a-need-to-reimagine-pakistan\/","title":{"rendered":"A Need to Reimagine Pakistan"},"content":{"rendered":"

Habib University as Pakistan\u2019s leading Liberal Arts institution of higher learning, lays great emphasis on promoting intellectual discourse on relevant and critical issues affecting Pakistan. In keeping with this focus, the University recently hosted Dr. Miftah Ismail, former Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue to speak about Pakistan\u2019s current economic turmoil in the session titled: Pakistan\u2019s Economic Future. The session was moderated by Dr. Aqdas Afzal, Assistant Professor, Social Development and Policy.<\/em><\/p>\n

The former minister began by stating that Pakistan\u2019s economy<\/a> suffers from three fundamental problems. Delving deeper he highlighted that first and foremost, as a nation, we don\u2019t live within our means, secondly our focus is on import substitution and not export growth and lastly, there was this \u2018elite bargain\u2019 existent in the country, essentially meaning that 99% of the population continues to work for the privileged one percent.<\/p>\n

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Participants listening intently to Dr. Miftah Ismail\u2019s talk.<\/p><\/div>\n

During the talk which was held as part of Habib University efforts to promote intellectual discourse on a variety of issues of importance to the country, Dr. Ismail, alluded to the difficult decisions he had faced at the time of taking office. According to him, \u201cthere was no commercial lending, we couldn\u2019t sell our bonds and we weren\u2019t part of the IMF program<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

He pointed out that the Government\u2019s efforts to secure financing from friendly nations also met with cold shoulders and deaf years, \u201cWhen you are defaulting, no one helps you out.\u201d Raising prices was the only way that the country could have been saved from default.<\/p>\n

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Dr. Miftah Ismail, ex-Federal Minister of Finance and Revenue with Dr Aqdas Afzal, Assistant Professor, Social Development and Policy.<\/p><\/div>\n

To a question regarding what Pakistan<\/a> would be like in 2047, Dr. Ismail, was not too optimistic. He pointed out that in the last 75 years, we had neglected to provide proper education to our youth, and built a society which was inherently intolerant. He cited the example of many educated minority members having left the country for the same reason.<\/p>\n

He also pointed out that as a nation, everyone knew the problems but when it came to solving them, there was a tendency to delay them. He questioned how it was possible for people to talk about exporting Information Technology from Pakistan, \u201cYou are not developing institutes for IT, but want to export it, that\u2019s not going to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n