The Pakistan Development Review 36 : 4 Part I (Winter 1997) pp. 355—402 Learning from the Past: A Fifty-year Perspective on Pakistan’s Development PARVEZ HASAN INTRODUCTION In some ways, Pakistan’s economic growth since 1947 has been remarkable. The country’s economic viability was considered, in some quarters, 1 in serious doubt at its emergence, but it has managed, despite a quadrupling of the population, to bring about significant improvement in the average living standards. Per capita GNP growth, on average around 2 percent per annum over a long stretch of nearly fifty years, has been the best among countries of the subcontinent. This growth has meant an increase in average income of about 150 percent over 1950–96. But Pakistan, like many other developing countries, has not been able to narrow the gap between itself and rich industrial nations which have grown faster on a per head basis. Also, Pakistan has lost substantial economic ground to the rapidly growing economies of East Asia notably China, South Korea, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. In 1960, South Korea’s per capita income was only marginally ahead of Pakistan’s. In the short period of one generation, Korea had an income level which on purchasing power parity basis five times that of Pakistan in 1995. On the same basis, Thailand and Malaysia enjoyed a per capita income advantage of 200 to 300 percent over Pakistan (Table 2). Pakistan’s lagging behind the more successful developing countries is, however, only one aspect of its disappointing economic performance. More seriously, the pattern of Pakistan’s growth has been deeply flawed because it has not ensured either sustainability or a reasonably equitable distribution of growth benefits. While Pakistan Parvez Hasan is a former Chief Economist of the World Bank, and also served the Government of West Pakistan as Chief Economist and Secretary, Planning, during 1965–70. 1 See Muhammad Ali, Emergence of Pakistan, (New York: Columbia University Press, 1967). pp. 332-333. Also Gustav F. Papanek, Pakistan’s Development, (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1967). pp.1-2.