ISAS Insights

In Pakistan’s early development stages, from the early-1950s to well into the late-1960s, economic growth was considered important. The strategy followed was influenced by the Harrod Domar model. It was one of promoting rapid industrialisation under the ownership and control of the rising capitalist class, with assistance from the government at home, and friendly foreign states. It was presumed that the benefits of growth would ‘trickle down’ to the more depressed sections of the community. In the words of Dr Mahbubul Huq, the Pakistani planners believed that “it is well to recognise that economic growth is a brutal, sordid process. There are no short-cuts to it. The essence of it lies in the labourer producing more than he is allowed to consume for his immediate needs, and to invest and re-invest the surplus thus obtained”. The formulation of detailed development plans, with specific output targets and carefully designed investment profits, has often been a necessary condition for the receipt of bilateral and multilateral foreign aid.