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Pakistan has taken a full circle recently regarding expectations of its economic performance, as it had an enviable record in first four decades of its life. Then the 1990s saw a fall in economic indicators, and later in the first fifteen years of this century-a period of terrorism and combat and combing operations within the country-the economy was not showing any noticeable improvement. However, after the year 2015, an escalation is observed. The book under review is an attempt to compare, contrast and explain why Pakistan has been on opposite poles of development during 1947-1990 and 1990-2015. The author, a senior, reputed economist, Dr Ishrat Hussain, has tried to evaluate various hypotheses, including security deficit hypothesis, put forward to explain their validity in the case of multiple indices and data available for Pakistan. Viewing the nature of available evidence, he has tried to use mix methods with a multidisciplinary approach.
Moreover, interviews, focus groups, conversations, consultations with influential individuals as well as official documents are extensively used.
The book aims at 'institutional reforms' and for this purpose a wide range of institutions are included, as they all join hands to shape the destiny of the society and state. Similarly development here is not confined to economic terms only, but also encompasses social aspects, sustainability, gender and regional inequalities. The argument that the author presents is that in countries where natural resources have been consumed to benefit a small minority at the top of the government, development process gradually becomes unsustainable. He finds ethnocentric bindings obstructing the governance by...