Why Pakistan could not be reformed / fixed so far?

[LeGenD]

I wanted to write this for a long time but was a bit afraid of reaction from the readers. But now after observing what's happening to Pakistan lately, I cannot wait any longer. So lets start:

1) Economy
No nation can survive without building sustainable economy. State of Pakistan failed to do just that. Since its inception it has not tried to build competitive industries to make goods for exports. Until Dhaka fall in 1971 majority of Pakistan's exports was jute and since then garment products. That's just not enough to cover import bill for a nation that has no check on its growing population. Since early 90s Pakistan's productivity and thus exports has been consistently falling against its regional peers.
View attachment 843261View attachment 843262
Putting the country on sustainable growth path is responsibility of the state not govt, as govts come and go but state is always there. So the state of Pakistan has clearly failed to fulfill its basic responsibility of putting together a sustainable economy and entire nation is paying its price through ever lasting inflation and other economic crisis that never go away.

2) Judiciary
No nation can survive without a functioning justice system. Recently it was revealed that Pakistan came at 130th place out of 139 in adherence to rule of law.

WJP Rule of Law Index

Explore rule of law rankings for 142 countries in the WJP Rule of Law Index

worldjusticeproject.org

It is responsibility of the state to provide equal justice for all. And considering above ranking and daily pathetic verdicts from Pakistani courts, it is clear as daylight that the state has failed to fulfill its basic responsibility in justice area as well.

3) Politics
No nation can survive without a stable political system. Unfortunately for Pakistan its entire history has been marred in political instability. Military coups, judicial coups, dynastic coups that's how you sum up entire political history of Pakistan. It's responsibility of the state to conduct free and fair elections, follow people's mandate as enshrined in constitution, and ensure the political system's continuity. Clearly the state of Pakistan has failed in all three.

Pakistan eighth least democratic place in the world: report

NEW YORK: Pakistan was placed at eighth place in the category of world’s least democratic places, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Democracy Index 2021.According to...

www.thenews.com.pk

Conclusion:
As you can see the failure of Pakistan is not economic, judicial or political. It's a state failure. Pakistanis must reform their state structure to fix rest of the mess. Good luck!

This is informative, mature and introspective contribution. I have given you positive rating to encourage you.

 

[ziaulislam]

I wanted to write this for a long time but was a bit afraid of reaction from the readers. But now after observing what's happening to Pakistan lately, I cannot wait any longer. So lets start:

1) Economy
No nation can survive without building sustainable economy. State of Pakistan failed to do just that. Since its inception it has not tried to build competitive industries to make goods for exports. Until Dhaka fall in 1971 majority of Pakistan's exports was jute and since then garment products. That's just not enough to cover import bill for a nation that has no check on its growing population. Since early 90s Pakistan's productivity and thus exports has been consistently falling against its regional peers.
View attachment 843261View attachment 843262
Putting the country on sustainable growth path is responsibility of the state not govt, as govts come and go but state is always there. So the state of Pakistan has clearly failed to fulfill its basic responsibility of putting together a sustainable economy and entire nation is paying its price through ever lasting inflation and other economic crisis that never go away.

2) Judiciary
No nation can survive without a functioning justice system. Recently it was revealed that Pakistan came at 130th place out of 139 in adherence to rule of law.

WJP Rule of Law Index

Explore rule of law rankings for 142 countries in the WJP Rule of Law Index

worldjusticeproject.org

It is responsibility of the state to provide equal justice for all. And considering above ranking and daily pathetic verdicts from Pakistani courts, it is clear as daylight that the state has failed to fulfill its basic responsibility in justice area as well.

3) Politics
No nation can survive without a stable political system. Unfortunately for Pakistan its entire history has been marred in political instability. Military coups, judicial coups, dynastic coups that's how you sum up entire political history of Pakistan. It's responsibility of the state to conduct free and fair elections, follow people's mandate as enshrined in constitution, and ensure the political system's continuity. Clearly the state of Pakistan has failed in all three.

Pakistan eighth least democratic place in the world: report

NEW YORK: Pakistan was placed at eighth place in the category of world’s least democratic places, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Democracy Index 2021.According to...

www.thenews.com.pk

Conclusion:
As you can see the failure of Pakistan is not economic, judicial or political. It's a state failure. Pakistanis must reform their state structure to fix rest of the mess. Good luck!

State enjoyed enough food chepa hydro power and free gas
So elite never cared and they dont care

 

[Norwegian]

State enjoyed enough food chepa hydro power and free gas
So elite never cared and they dont care

So? What if county's goes bankrupt? Elite will then just run away to foreign lands leaving all debt on common Pakistanis

 

[Wood]

So? What if county's goes bankrupt? Elite will then just run away to foreign lands leaving all debt on common Pakistanis

If you go bankrupt, your money problems go away. It is nature's do over

 

[ziaulislam]

So? What if county's goes bankrupt? Elite will then just run away to foreign lands leaving all debt on common Pakistanis

Why kill the golden goose
They will try their best to avoid that but will keep it running

 

[Black Tornado]

Despite enormous poverty, India is matching the Western world in many aspects. Modern metros exist in most cities. Fast rail is being built between cities. Literally millions of I.T. professionals are approaching Western standards of living, and India makes more from I.T. per year than Saudi Arabia makes from oil sales.

Poverty is temporary
Prosperity is permanent

 

[AZADPAKISTAN2009]

Dalal Courts and Protective system

 

[HydraChess]

Both BD and Pakistan have Jinnah to thank as otherwise Muslims would have been at the mercy of Hindus after "independence" from the British in 1947.

In the UK, Pakistanis are more and more tolerant as the years pass by but this is probably due to the system here.

I cannot say what the solution is for Pakistan but let me restate the average annual GDP per capita growth rates of Pakistan, India and BD over the last 20 years.


BD: 5% - this is accelerating to 6-7% now and was 6% a year average over the 2010s
India: 6% - constant at 5-6% average with higher growth in 2000s compared to 2010s
Pakistan: 2% - looks likely to be at this level now.

Although neither BD or India are economic success stories, Pakistan seems to be stuck on a low-growth trajectory and little hope of lessening the gap with the developed world over the coming decades.

Unfortunately too many Pakistanis were taken in by the fallacy that CPEC by itself would turn the Pakistani economy around. There are just far too many Pakistanis(200 million+) for CPEC to have a major effect on Pakistan's long-term growth rate.

Both BD and India are where they are now due to decades of governments of both major parties in each country having a pro-growth and pro-social development goal. Unfortunately this seems to be lacking in Pakistan from what I have observed. It takes decades of sustained work in order to get to the kind of 6-7% sustained growth rates that BD and India have managed.

Sorry to say this but as an outsider I cannot see anything in Pakistan that is likely to turn this country round in the next 10 years at least.

Wish the best for Pakistan and hope there is a leader soon that is pro-growth and pro-social development that has the backing of the army and can stay in power for at least 10 years to carry out the needed reforms and get a momentum going.

There is more to this. India and BD have reduced population growth rate to 1%. BD and India have a fertility rate of 2.01 and 2.2 respectively. This helps with containing growth of poverty. Pakistan still have 3.45 fertility rate and population growth rate twice of India and BD. This is further compounded by having less area to put under agriculture and increasing hot climate in the subcontinent.

 

[Maula Jatt]

There is more to this. India and BD have reduced population growth rate to 1%. BD and India have a fertility rate of 2.01 and 2.2 respectively. This helps with containing growth of poverty. Pakistan still have 3.45 fertility rate and population growth rate twice of India and BD. This is further compounded by having less area to put under agriculture and increasing hot climate in the subcontinent.

There are plenty of fertile lands already available and more are added with dams every month I hear of 100000 sq or some crazy number becoming available for farmland by building a small dam or canal - agricultural land and population is the last of the issue, at most, it just needs a bit more management
I want the population in some parts of the country to grow as in Saarc Pak is just above Afghanistan in terms of underpopulation when the fertility rate is perfectly natural and will come down at its own time
Just because it's in south Asia not every comparison needs to be made with Bangladesh, or India, our population situation is totally different and we do not want nor require the fertility rate of India, or Bangladesh, this is not our reality

Poverty comes and goes with economic growth, its not the worst in SA rn but if things continue the way they are last 10-13 years this'll be affected too- only natural

 

[FuturePAF]

There is a limit to meritocracy in Pakistan and an average person has a harder time building up their innovative ideas into full fledged businesses on their own, and only hope to leave the country to further their ambitions.

A lot of it comes down to who you know and not what you know. There is no incentive for entrenched people to keep up with the times. Students are learning from outdated textbooks so innovative thought is not encouraged.

Even if the people become fully educated as in many Latin American countries, will the elites open the space for disruptive young talent to displace them? Even though Pakistan could easily “grow the pie” by an order of magnitude if opened up, and elites would benefit financially, politically their power maybe diminished.

Rule of law, politics on platforms not family names, and rewarding people that show a better work ethnic with the right incentives must become the norm rather then a privilege of the well connected.

Failure to do so within the next 5-10 years will set back the nation considerably, squandering the demographic dividend of our competitors, while the geopolitical rivals of Pakistan entrench themselves deeper into major power structures internationally. What will Pakistan do when their is an British-Indian Prime Minister that is less receptive or Indian-American politicians in key places of power that tighten the screws even tighter, while supporting India to cement their regional hegemony. Now is the time to act before that becomes more and more likely.

Externally, Pakistan needs a United polity that can weather and maneuver the influences of the superpowers and other major powers and find opportunities to grow. Pakistan needs a strategy that not only keeps pace with India on a per capita basis but exceeds it to allow Pakistan to punch above its weight and have asymmetrical defenses; like Taiwan and its semiconductors.

 

[ghazi52]

On a mission.....

 

[ghazi52]

.,.,

 

[Hamza913]

Because Punjabis and Muhajirs have generally convinced ourselves that to launch a revolt would only weaken not just Pakistan but also ourselves a lot further.

It would be a struggle for sure but the long-term benefits outweigh it, every attempt to internally change the system simply does not work, uproot and replace it idc what it takes we have to start over.

 

[PakLeader]

SK?, Israel to some extent (their generals are powerful), Vietnam with powerful generals?

Also South Korea was run directly and indirectly by the military until recently.

 

[TacOps]

Most of the issues being discussed are symptoms, there are two major root causes and both are interconnected:
- Illiteracy / lack of education: an illiterate nation cannot make generally make good decisions. This gets reflected in everything: lack of ethics / morals, short-termism, slave mentality, lack of resources to develop an industrial base.
- the fact that at birth, Pakistan was a security state, primarily due to the unresolved Kashmir issue. That gave one institution too much power, almost untouchable / unquestionable status. It also meant excessive spend on defence which is partly a contributor to the first cause.