Mohammad Uzair, A Study of Bank Deposits in Pakistan (1947-1962). (Karachi: Economic Research Academy, 1964. pp.28. Rs. 2.00).

Dr. Uzair’s short monograph capably surveys the fundamental changes which occurred in the Pakistan banking system during the first fifteen years of its existence. While most of the monograph is little more than a summary of the published State Bank of Pakistan statistics, it nevertheless provides a useful picture of the immediately visible developments in banking during these years. Between and around the facts and figures, however, there is a very curious ambivalence. On the one hand, Uzair is impressed with the tremendous growth of bank deposits over 1947-1963; on the other hand, he is disturbed by the inadequacy of efforts by the State Bank and commercial banks to foster the development of banking in Pakistan. This ambivalence arises from Uzair’s failure to recognize that the greater use of deposits and the development of the “banking habit” are neither goals of an economy nor important achievements in themselves. The subject he never raises, and which he should have raised even though it would have required a much longer monograph, is: Why is it desirable that the banking system seek to expand deposits ?