LAHORE: The country has all the potential and resources to emerge as a stronger global player, economically as well as politically, provided the government tackles the governance issues head-on.
This was the upshot of the speeches delivered at the launching ceremony of the books titled “Development for an equitable society” and “Political Economy of Bad Governance” at the Lahore Chamber of Commerce & Industry. A large number of representatives of the business community, civil servants, and academia participated in the ceremony.
LCCI Senior Vice President Mian Rehman Aziz Chan, Vice President Haris Ateeq, Author of the Book Jamil Nasir, renowned economists Dr. Shahid Kardar and Dr. Nadeemul Haq spoke on the occasion.
Jamil Nasir while narrating his experience as to what made him write these books highlighted that journey starts with his exposure to the outside world when he had opportunity to study in UK as Chevening Fellow and in USA at Columbia University as World Bank scholar.
He said that through multiple articles included in the said books, he has presented results and insights of various empirical papers and studies undertaken on the themes of development and economic policy at global level in a simple manner so people who possess even rudimentary knowledge of economics and development get familiarized with the issues holding us back from development.
Shahid Kardar, Ex-Governor of the State Bank of Pakistan gave critique of both the books and lauded the efforts of the author to combine multiple themes of development like economic growth, inequality, taxation, corruption, political economy, poverty alleviation, and democracy etc. in two wonderful books.
Nadeemul Haq, Vice Chancellor of PIDE who was the chief guest on the occasion emphasized in his address the centrality of economic growth for development. He said that long-term growth is possible only through development of better state architecture which is capable of policy and institutional innovation. For a country to develop, policy, state, and society must become more thoughtful and inquiring, he argued.
Commenting on the books, Haq said that the books are very useful and should be used for class room debates and for developing a deeper and more thoughtful economic policy making in the country. The books are full of ideas and insights and should be read by all.
LCCI Senior Vice President Mian Rehman Aziz Chan, while paying rich tributes to the author of the books, said that Jamil Nasir has done a great national service, as the book are an eye opener for the future generations. He said that that good governance at all levels is fundamental to economic growth, political stability, and security. In these current times when we are facing stiff challenges on both the economic and political front, it is important to analyze our state of governance from a holistic point of view and identify the issues that are constraining our growth. Jamil Nasir deserves special appreciation for using his diverse background as a Civil Servant and his experience of studying abroad to put into writing his insights about the governance system of Pakistan and touching important areas like corruption, culture of patronage, education and taxation etc.
LCCI Vice President Haris Ateeq stressed that such initiatives will pave way for making LCCI a learning organization so it can play its role more effectively in providing inputs to the government for economic policy formulation in the country. He congratulated the author on writing books on a dry subject in an easy and readable style.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021
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