Pakistan’s Economic Journey – Need for A New Paradigm has been prepared with two objectives in view. First, it should serve as a policy document: suggesting a future strategy for Pakistan after technically reviewing the 70 years’ economic journey of the country, and second, articulating and presenting all the concerning issues in such a way that they remain easy to comprehend even for the common readers. In line with he given objectives, each chapter of the book starts with an introduction which explains the important concepts relevant to the subjects along with their backdrop and the contemporary debates over those concepts, and finally the presentation of Pakistan’s scenario in the given context. Hence the book is not only useful for economists, but also for the students, as well as for those having general interest in the subject.
The book consists of 19 chapters, each deliberates upon aspects of economy such as paradigm for development, industry, inflation, public finance, human resource development, poverty and economic disparity, WTO and globalization, etc. Despite having its individual identity, discussion in each chapter has obvious linkages with other chapters, and this albeit may give an impression of repetition at times, still does not look odd, given the book’s overall scheme.
The book was first published in 2006. Three editions of the book have been published since then, including a Chinese translated version that was published by Pakistan Study Centre, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China. The statistics presented in the earlier editions of the book have changed considerably during this time, the general trends of the country’s economy however have still remained somewhat unchanged. This revised edition contains latest statistics at many places. In addition, the book at the end also contains the graphical representations of statistics over important topics covering the period 1951-2018. These graphs will be especially enticing for the people having interest in updated statistical data.
The key message of the book is based on the paradigm that is given in the chapter 18. As a matter of fact, the paradigm not only provides guidance for improvement in Pakistan’s economic state, but also for the global economy in general.