Some Notes on “Planning Experience in Pakistan”

Planning for the national economy is an infinitely complicated process. It involves the harmonization of a large number of independent decisions taken by a great many agencies and groups often representing conflicting interests in order to achieve certain targets which are sometimes themselves in conflict with one another. Only by continuous appraisal and critical analysis of the major strategies can it be ensured that the main objectives are kept in mind while mak¬ing individual decisions, and that individual policies do not conflict with one another. It is, therefore, important to make detailed assessment of the past experience to gain a general sense of the combination of circumstances which, in the past, did or did not prove favourable to growth. In his conference address [9], Dr. Huda makes an effort to survey Pakis¬tan’s planning strategy in the past and to reflect on the appropriate policies for future. Admittedly, his purpose is to provoke the economists “to think, deli¬berate and advise”. Painting on such a big canvas, Dr. Huda has necessarily adopted an impressionistic technique. What we intend to do in these notes is to try to paint in somewhat greater details a few of those parts of Dr. Huda’s canvas which have been left by him with relatively few brush strokes.