ervez Tahir, PT to everyone, my husband, breathed his last on September 29, in Lahore.

Power, privilege, or patronage never impressed him.

He was a witty man, eager to live life to the fullest. He was willing to struggle against all odds. He paid attention to details and worked as a chief economist at the Planning Commission of Pakistan.

PT served the state in various positions and was known for his pro-poor ideology.

While in government office, he gathered people concerned with public progress and developed the Social Action Programme, which was later adopted by the World Bank.

He was a natural thinker, adept at achieving the seemingly impossible, and had a keen understanding of what was practically achievable. He enjoyed challenging ideas and never accepted the status quo.

In 1998, PT wrote a paper titled Debt of the Nation and warned that accumulation of debt for capital accumulation and development would lead to indebtedness and a lower growth trajectory. Sadly, his words have come true.

Today, we are still relying on debt for development. Our economy is at a tipping point, and there is a greater sense of urgency for pro-poor reforms.

PT was a professor - the Mahbub-ul Haq Chair at Government College University - in 2007. I first saw him at a meeting at the Department of Economics, where I was a lecturer. That day, he arrived late for the meeting. Little did we know that he had survived a near-fatal car accident near Khanqah Dogran. He remained calm and did not mention the accident during the meeting.

As the meeting ended, he left because his car needed to be towed from the motorway. The meeting was about course offerings for MPhil students.

He allowed me, a junior lecturer, to express my thoughts. Later, he reminded me that I had started with an “I don’t agree.” That, somehow, connected us.

He decided that he wanted to teach a course on poverty and income distribution.

I had the opportunity to assist him with this course. From that day onward, we worked together on several research papers. He was my friend, mentor, teacher and a loving husband. PT encouraged me but never compromised on work. We debated, discussed, and disagreed often. What bound us was a commitment to fight against injustice.

PT was a workaholic who enjoyed music and sports. He would always sing melodies by Mehdi Hassan, Shamshad Begum and Master Madan.

I fell for his smile. He was a man who wanted love, care and the right to live with integrity for all. He was a man who could make sacrifices for his ideas.

Before PT, Sarfraz Nawaz had given him the name Kaptan Hashmi because he was the consensus captain of the college cricket team. He was an epicure but could eat anything served to him. He went to Corporation High School, Chowk Dalgaran, Lahore, and went on to get a PhD from the University of Cambridge.

His journey was tedious, but he never complained about the odds. Born into a middle income family, with his effort and skills, PT managed to sit at the high table in Cambridge with famous economists like Harcourt and Peter Nolan. He could converse with ordinary citizens of Pakistan and seasoned bureaucrats and politicians with equal ease. Attending meetings with labourers and labour leaders like Karmat Ali at Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research (PILER) and working as an activist at Amn Ittehad was a part of my training. The aim was to do good for the downtrodden, give voice to the voiceless, mend the ways of our democracy and make governments more responsive to the people. In all these meetings, PT was focused, attentive and would speak with clarity.

Full of leftist ideas and groomed in the company of some of the best activists in Pakistan, PT was famous internationally for his work in the sphere of economic history. He was always willing to launch a struggle and never gave up. His work on Joan Robinson opened new horizons and frontiers for discussion in the history of economic thought. It offered new insights and made significant contributions to the field.

The 1930s had witnessed two significant developments in the field of economics. The first was the theory of imperfect competition; the second was the Keynesian revolution. Joan Robinson played a pioneering role in the former and was at the forefront of the latter. PT argued in his work that Joan Robinson’s statism was a result of frustration with equilibrium economics stemming from an unsuccessful attempt to reconcile it with what later came to be known in development literature as pecuniary external economies. In his work, PT displayed his mastery and skill as an accomplished historian of economy. I wonder how such a well-grounded economist could effortlessly write newspaper columns.

It wasn’t the triple vessel disease that led him into the clutches of death. It wasn’t the GB syndrome either. He fought despite his auxiliary systems failing. I was a witness to his relentless battle for life.

He held onto hope, believing that sooner or later, Pakistan’s economic leaders will initiate the necessary structural reforms to improve the lives of ordinary Pakistanis. I am confident that we will redouble our efforts to achieve this goal.

I had fallen for his smile. He was a man who wanted love, care and the right to live with integrity for all - a man who could make sacrifices for his ideas. He was someone who nurtured and nourished a culture of tolerance. He was larger than life. And this was just the beginning of my understanding of PT. He has left too soon. I’m sure he is smiling down on me.

The writer can be reached at nadiatahir332@yahoo.com