Development Strategy for Pakistan

Economic planning is of such recent origin in Pakistan that, up to now, it has necessarily been ad hoc in character. The problems of the present and immediate future have always appeared so pressing to the planners that, aside from hopeful compound-interest projections to the next generation and occasional evasive reference to the advantages of a “mixed” economy, there has been little in the way of a philosophy or long-run strategy of economic development that one could attribute to the planning authorities. This is not at all surprising when one recalls that the First Five Year Plan was not officially approved until more than one-third of the plan period had passed. The final version had to be in part a rationalization of what had already occurred. Even the Second Plan was ready only on the eve of the beginning of the plan period and the final revised version did not appear until 15 months later.