Institutions, HR development urged for sustainable growth

KARACHI: Government should develop institutions and human resources to ensure sustainable economic growth, said renowned economist Ishrat Husain said on Tuesday.

Husain, former governor of State Bank of Pakistan, said economists in early days thought that capital and land were the only means of economic development, but as time passed they realised that there were other things to be understood as well. 

Pakistan’s economy enjoyed the fastest growth rate of six percent – much above Malaysia and Indonesia, he said, giving a lecture on institutions for growth, equity and security organized by the faculty of Social Sciences of University of Karachi.

But, he added that India’s economy outpaced Pakistan’s growth by 1994 and in 2007 Bangladesh outclassed Pakistan’s yearly economic growth rate. Pakistan’s growth came down to three to four percent a year as compared to India’s six to seven percent. 

Likewise, Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) that built several airlines from scratch around the world has now gone into crisis, said Husain, who’s served the World Bank as an economist.  He said PIA had seen only two or three managing directors in a long span between 1955 and 1990, but the airline is now seeing fast reshuffling at its key position.

Similarly, he added that Sindh government has seen 12 education secretaries in only few years and this is leading to policy change and inconsistency. Husain said jobs must be given on the basis of commission and merit instead of on political consideration. Civil servants must be given proper training and not just lectures so that they could actually know how to manage resources. 

Government should have performance indicators as annual confidential report doesn’t really justify an employee’s performance. Currently, government institutions have promotional pattern based on time. Promotions should be awarded according to the performance of employees and not just on the basis of seniority, he added.

“Compensations and benefits are the major factors that must be given to employees so that corruption should be curbed and transparency be promoted.”  Husain said merit was killed and job security waned during the first government of Pakistan Peoples Party, which caused disappointments among working class.

“The people with political backgrounds were chosen for jobs and they served their own purposes.”  Ajmal Khan, vice chancellor of University of Karachi said everyone has been saying for the last four to five decades that agriculture is important to Pakistan’s economy. But, if agriculture sector is so important, why isn’t US giving importance to the sector.    

“We are using abundant water to grow rice but that massive quantity of water is causing water logging and hence damage to fertile land,” Khan said. “Water will be as precious as the oil in the upcoming years and we must save the amount of water we waste for the future. We need to shift this agricultural economy to educational/knowledge-based economy,” he said. 

KU Vice Chancellor said China sent different students to US for PhD on the government’s funds – which brought about a drastic change in Chinese economic development. 

He said investing in education can’t give an immediate result but it does give a long lasting, long-term fruit. “If the government invests in the University of Karachi, we can be able to turn up massive developments in just 20 to 30 years.” 

Professor Ahmed Qadri, dean faculty of social sciences called for reconciliation for growth. “We must exhibit positive traits and vibes in order to take economic growth to an irretrievable positive growth,” Qadri said. “We all need to come towards an identical point in order to get such growth.”