Pakistan elite losing ground, says UK scholar

“The elite will have to change to build up common grounds because there is no quick fix. It can be done through political bargaining among the military, politicians, bureaucrats, intellectuals, and journalists. There is no quick fix,” former economic adviser to the Department for International Development (DfID) was quoted as saying by The News International while speaking on the second day of a conference, organised by the World Bank (WB), in collaboration with the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE).

Dercon said Pakistan’s elite bargain is just focused on enough stability to achieve the status quo, but there are voices that maintaining the status quo would not provide any solution. The status quo, he said, was basically a zero-sum game.

He cited the example of a cricket match where the selectors were choosing the team and players were on the ground, but this whole game was not securing the desired results.

He said the IMF’s next bailout package would not provide a solution and the same applied to getting bailout from other bilateral donors.

He told the newspaper that Pakistan’s economy was in a bad shape and there would be no one rescuing the ailing economy of the country.

“The solution is to develop common grounds,” he said.

He the newspaper that Bangladesh had come out of the difficult situation and it went up to the IMF prior to eruption of crisis.

“There is now time to unchain Pakistan’s economy and let live like other elephant economies,” he added.