Development 2.0--by Nadeem Ul Haque

Everyone is familiar with “Economic Hitmen” and what they do to poor countries . Many Pakistani TV commentators and columnists have been referring to “Economic Hitmen” but mainly in the context of debt . However, Hitmen have evolved beyond the book and operate much more subtly now . Now they control of policy through a monopoly on thought and research .   They also have huge advocacy funds (20-500 million dollars ) where they can buy local intellectuals and media space. Through such activities, they define poor societies for all including the country’s citizenry . Inundated with this advocacy, local talking heads and groups start repeating advocacy mantras . NGOs are set up to run campaigns to project visions and characterizations of poor countries that they want .   One such important advocacy campaign is run by Adam Smith International a firm that is under scrutiny by UK ...

Pakistanis are paying a lot of tax contrary to the propaganda of donors.  The mess that is tax policy has been created by decades of poor policymaking and administration that has been supported by bad technical assistance of donors. Dr. Ikramul Haq and Huzaima Bukhari leading Tax lawyers and tax policy experts talk to us about how badly this area needs implication and clarity. Rather than follow complications of donor consultants, they put forward home-grown reforms for the simplification fo tax policy and administration. They show hue gains in revenue are possible by following simplification and a clear policy and cleaning out tax administration. This is in sharp contrast to the tax advocacy of donors where the system is further complicated and all Pakistanis are painted as tax cheats.  it is time we started listening to some good local experts rather than donor con...

Policy making in Pakistan is an amateur parlor game—everybody plays policy on TV, in drawing rooms and wherever they like and all without reading, investigating or learning about how the rest of the world makes policy. And let me hasten to add this is not just the current PMLN government—all governments in our history have done this. Some powerful person in their tremendously busy VIP schedules picks up stray ideas. Bureaucrats beholden for their careers to the powerful people, rush to implement these suggestions. No time to think, investigate, understand—after all development must not wait for thought, debate and investigation. None of them even think that some of these ideas may be self-serving and perhaps a further investigation may be required.   Nowhere is this more apparent than in tax policy.   All of us live with new and crazier proposals every few weeks. Arbitrary taxes on energy, Internet, school fees, cars, houses, consumption, mobile phones, bank transactio...

Lack of social mobility is very visible in Pakistan. Political power also seems to be coagulated as the chances of getting elected are tied into traditional wealth, land and family status. Power, privilege and wealth seem to remain in the family in Pakistan. A few years ago a principal of an elite school told me that the students there were disinterested in serious studies as daddy’s wealth was certain, and their elite status was guaranteed in society through inheritances. Discussing this with various members of our privileged class, it becomes immediately apparent that hard work is not an aspiration. Power and privilege is a right in our society, not something to be earned through hard work. An entitlement culture prevails not just in agriculture but also in business and politics. Examine the elite and you find large cohorts who even if educated have never really used that education. Their lives largely have been of leisure made possible through inheritances and sources o...