Miftah Ismail Pakistan’s former Minister of Finance gives a lecture Many Pakistani colonial institutions such has the bureaucracy, the judiciary and especially the army have evolved into self-perpetuating elite institutions that resist change and seek to maintain the status quo. And over the years they have co-opted politicians, religious leaders, the landed gentry and also large industrial conglomerates and together they have neither pursued inclusive economic growth nor a liberal, tolerant society. Resultantly Pakistan is falling behind all its peer nations in South Asia in income and human development. The economic and political crises today, the worst in Pakistan’s history, offer an opportunity to build a new ruling coalition that will sue for growth, inclusivity and human development. The alternative is a secular decline towards a failed state.

Miftah Ismail is Pakistan’s former Minister of Finance. He holds a PhD in Public Finance and Political Economy from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania