Dr. Ishrat Husain sheds light on various aspects of Pakistan's economy

February 21, 2022: Ms. Shagufta Shabbar, PhD Scholar, School of Economics and Social Sciences, organized a guest speaker session for students studying macroeconomics. Dr. Ishrat Husain, Former Dean and Director IBA, and Chairman, Centre for Excellence in Islamic Finance (IBA-CEIF) was the guest speaker for the session. The agenda of the session was to understand why Pakistan's economic development has declined over the years, and whether the economy of Pakistan has benefitted from the IMF loans.

Dr. Husain shed light on how Pakistan was one of the fast-developing nations in its early years. Organizations like PIDC, WAPDA and ADC rigorously assisted in revolutionizing the industrial development and PIA played a vital role in establishing Emirates. He identified several reasons, concluded through his extensive research at the University of Washington and Harvard University for the downturn of Pakistan. He further added that PIDC, WAPDA and PIA struggled mostly because of management failures, and the economy started to lag due to lesser investments in female education and due to the government's inability to yield positive returns from numerous IMF loans. Dr. Husain agreed that policies take time to act, moreover he emphasized that Pakistan lacked good economists who could make the difference.

Dr. Husain addressed concerns regarding the notion that there are minimum opportunities in economics for Pakistani students. He apprised the audience that instead of pursuing general degrees, students must specialize in economics to gain powerful insights and to play their roles towards the betterment of Pakistan.