UNDERDEVELOPMENT, POVERTY AND INEQUALITY IN PAKISTAN: A Review Article

This is a timely book in many respects. Coming as it does at the end of Pakistan’s third decade as an independent nation, it provides a useful’perspective on where we have been and where we ought to be going. In particular, it gives us a good opportunity to evaluate economic development under two broadly distinguishable development strategy regimes, the Ayub Khan regime (1958-69) and the Bhutto regime (1972-77). Coming as it does at the beginning of a fresh attempt by Pakistan to chart a long-term development plan and a consistent and identifiable development strategy, it presents planners an opportunity to draw lessons from past experience and thereby avoid past mistakes. Finally, covering as it does the important issues of growth, inequality and poverty it enables us to view development strategies from a perspective that has won widespread acceptance as being the relevant one.