'Lack of clear vision deteriorated sectoral volatility'

Due to deterioration in sectoral volatility, development and governance, there is lack of clear vision, transparency and functional co-operation at the political levels, marginalisation of civil society in the planning process and slackness at the bureaucratic level, which have severely damaged the quality of planning in Pakistan.
Most of the policies in Pakistan are based on short-term, whereas it requires the introduction of a long-term planning and expenditure framework. Appropriate policy and institutional framework based on transparent process involving all the legitimate stakeholders with clear strategy and integrated programme of action are needed most for consistent economic growth in all sectors.
This was the crux of the presentation on "Sectoral volatility, development and governance" organised by Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE), here on Wednesday. At the government level, technical expertise as well as technology and information management systems are very deficient, he continued.
The other factors, which attribute to this dilemma is public revenue in Pakistan, which is inadequate and unstable and the low level of social security is also a major constraint to sustainable growth, he added.
Muhammad Jamil, a staff economist of PIDE emphasised on the need of rethinking on restructuring fiscal federation in Pakistan, estimating in-depth impact of political stability on the volatility of growth rates. He said, the National Economic Council has a central role to play in this regard.
The causes of this volatility, he said are: excessive centralisation of resources and powers, to the detriment of sub-national units of government; prevalence of fiscal imbalances both vertically and horizontally; overlapping and non-co-ordination of expenditure responsibilities among different levels of government.
Among other factors causing problems, Pakistan also experimented with a succession of exchange rate regimes among which the latest experiment is based on managed floating rate of exchange, adding that national development planning in Pakistan has suffered from lack of systematic, integrated and target-oriented approach since 1947.