Islamabad [Pakistan]: Due to the ensuing economic crisis, political instability, rising food inflation and rise in terror attacks, a large number of Pakistani are willing to leave the country, according to renowned economist Atif Mian.
Writing in Voice of America (VOA), a Pakistani economist who lost his job with the government five years ago because of his faith – an Ahmadi, one of the persecuted minorities in Pakistan, lays bare what’s wrong with Pakistan. Hitting out at the deteriorating economic conditions, he said that Pakistan is a place where investors are not ready to go at the moment, and according to him, if you look at Google Trends Pakistan, the word “visa” is included in the most searched words.
According to him, such a large number of searches are not seen in India or Bangladesh, which suggests that a large number of Pakistani are willing to leave the country, reported VOA.
According to Atif Mian, be it politicians, bureaucrats or the military establishment, their bad political, security and economic decisions have brought the country to the point where today the government has lost its credibility among the people.
“A dive into recent data suggests that Pakistan’s economy is going off the rails. First, exports … there was a global surge in exports post-covid, but around 2nd quarter 2022, Pak exports drop off relative to India and Bang – the gap is now over 20 per cent,” he tweeted.
Atif said that Pakistan’s economy is in a tailspin, going from crisis to catastrophe. “The system is coming unhinged. We can see this in the increasing stagflationary forces: growth is rapidly falling, and prices are rapidly rising,” he said.
Atif Mian said that the solution to Pakistan’s problems lies in economic development, but development is not possible without investment and the government does not have funding to invest in infrastructure for development, reported VOA.
He further said that Pakistan’s “nervous system” is fundamentally broken – a combination of administrative and political structures that guarantee a certain level of confidence in the economy, adding, “The country must begin to build a functioning nervous system … somehow.”
Atif Mian said that social change is also indispensable for the development of Pakistan. He questioned how a society where women are not in positions of authority despite their educational qualifications, where there is social and religious intolerance, how can a society move forward.
According to him, this process of social change also has to be introduced by the rulers. Giving the example of Saudi Arabia, he said that Saudi Arabia also realized that tolerance must be increased to move forward, reported VOA.
