Pakistan is facing a critical moment where it must decide whether to continue with policies that
have led to high poverty rates and economic hardships, or make necessary changes for a brighter
future, according to the World Bank. The country is dealing with issues such as inflation, rising
electricity prices, climate shocks, and insufficient resources for development. Pakistan’s human
development outcomes are also poor, with a high number of children out of school and stunted
growth. The World Bank is urging the upcoming government to make policy shifts to address
these challenges.
Pakistan is in its tipping point crisis where it should decide to remain a laggard
with 40 per cent population living below the poverty line under elite capture
and policy decisions driven by strong vested interests of military, political and
business leaders or change course to take off for a brighter future, local media
reported.
This candid warning came from the World Bank ahead of the new election cycle
for the upcoming government to make early choices while making it clear that
international lenders and development partners could only advise with
international experiences of successes and some financing but hard choices and
course correcting decisions could only be taken within the country, Dawn
reported.
“This may be Pakistan’s moment in making policy shifts,” said Najy Benhassine,
Country Director for the World Bank in Pakistan, at a news briefing while
releasing a set of policy notes for debate and discussions for finalisation before
the new elected government comes in, Dawn reported.
He said Pakistan was in the middle of a human resource capital and economic
crisis. “Policy decisions are heavily influenced by strong vested interests,
including those of military, political and business leaders,” reads an overview of
the ‘Reforms For a Brighter Future: Time to Decide’ that Mr Benhassine released.
He said Pakistan had been facing numerous economic hardships including
inflation, rising electricity prices, severe climate shocks, and insufficient public resources to finance development and climate adaptation – when the country was
among the most vulnerable to climate change impacts, Dawn reported.
Pakistan’s human development outcomes lag well behind the rest of South
Asia and are roughly equivalent to those in many Sub-Saharan African countries
with the costs disproportionately borne by girls and women while close to 40pc of
children under five years of age were stunted and had the largest number (20.3m)
of out-of-school children in the world, Dawn reported.
Its growth model has resulted in periodic balance of payments crises driven by
unsustainable fiscal and current account deficits that necessitated subsequent
painful contractionary adjustments, slowing growth, reducing certainty and
undermining investments