Need for rational policies

LAHORE: Reforms in India have been delivered, aided by the Indian Diaspora, whereas overseas Pakistanis have been kept at bay because of frequent tinkering in rules by both authoritarian and democratic governments.

There was nothing special about Pakistan that doomed it to its low growth rate, not its size, not its culture, not its geography, nor its history. The problem lay in our choice of wrong policies; when the policies were good, Pakistanis performed at the most enviable levels, second to none.

We complain about the dearth of foreign investment. But we fail to realise that whatever foreign direct investment we get is not from the Pakistani Diaspora. There are numerous Pakistani billionaires living in foreign countries who invest in other countries but not in Pakistan.

The former imported caretaker Prime Minister of Pakistan, Moeen Qureshi invested in India instead of Pakistan. We should find out the reasons for their reluctance to invest in their country of origin.

Pakistan has a large number of successful entrepreneurs operating in the European Union, United States and Canada. They have since long been waiting for the opportune time to go back and invest in their home land.

However expatriate Pakistanis complain that Pakistan’s policies made no sense to them which they think diminish our standing in the world.

Some brilliant Pakistanis have demonstrated that, if only they are given the chance and the opportunity, they can work their way to the top: a possibility that the United States, a land made by immigrants which welcomes immigrants more than any other country, offers them in spades. If we offer them similar opportunities and do not reserve them for a favoured one, they will perform miracles.

If we look at Japan that was destroyed in World War II, its transformation through major initiatives during the Meiji era was accomplished by sending gifted Japanese abroad to bring back ideas that were adapted to Japan’s culture and needs.

In our case, the Diaspora could serve that function if we genuinely and sincerely engage them, unfortunately we scare them away.

The real reforms provide a level playing field, while bypassing the reform agenda on discretion of the ruling elite, turns the economic system into a rent seeking structure. The litmus test for checking the confidence on reforms is to see how the large Pakistani Diaspora having huge foreign savings reacts to Pakistani policies.

India’s Diaspora had similar sentiments about the policies of their government in the1990s, but the reforms introduced by Manmohan Singh during the Narasimha Rao regime instilled confidence in them.

Today, more than fifty percent of foreign investment in India comes from Indian immigrants living abroad.

If we analyse the foreign investment coming to India from Europe and United States this is also coming mainly from Indians that have migrated to these regions.

Pakistan is among the top ten recipients of workers remittances, which indicate the strength of the Diaspora. However, they send petty amounts to their relatives in Pakistan. They are reluctant to establish industrial projects from their huge savings as they have no trust in the system.

Elites from Pakistan on their visit to developed economies increasingly experience disjunction between their sense of Pakistan’s ancient culture and glory and their realisation how our foolish economic policies have led to a situation where few take us seriously.

The Pakistani Diaspora ceaselessly made these elites realise the fact that these policies had little rationale; they live often in countries where our policies will be laughed out of court.