Capitalism reason of underdevelopment in Pakistan The purpose of this essay is to analyze critically the role of capitalist economic system

in the development or underdevelopment of Pakistan economy and its impact on the human development of whole nation. The topic is quite interesting because the system about which we are discussing has huge impact on development in western economies and it played vital role in making these states welfare to their nation rather than security states that most of eastern countries are. Western countries are more cautious towards providing good health and educational facilities to their citizens. These countries people enjoy good quality life having enough incomes to fulfill all necessary needs and wants of human life. The question arise here is then why the capitalist model failed to deliver its fruits in Pakistan and other developing countries? The reasons for underdevelopment of developing countries are that they are more focused towards the status co of elite and fulfillment their unnecessary luxurious wants. In these countries 80% of nations wealth is controlled by only 20% elite class while rest of 80% population scuttle their lives by depending on 20% resources which are almost impossible to feed them in twice a day. The Capitalist model has proved itself as successful when it is implemented with its core essence by ensuring law and order situation, by providing equal opportunities to each and every investor, by providing justice, by controlling corruption and insider trading. Providing investor friendly environment in country and highly skilled labor are other important aspects of capitalist economic model. Countries like Malaysia south Korea Singapore and brazil are few countries that emerge themselves as growing economies by ensuring investor friendly environment. Thomas L. Friedman an author of one of the bestselling book The World is Flat discusses the fruits of capitalist model by giving example of Indian economy. The Indian cities like Bangalore and Calcutta are among the world IT hubs which provide IT solutions to world businesses. The world businesses believe in moving their work to those places where it can be done best at lowest prices. So ensuring investor friendly environment is one of important aspect in development process and that is state s responsibility. The other aspect which lacks in ours leadership is high level of moral and ethical values which are also important to make any economic model successful. It is difficult to say that one economic model is right and all other are wrong or any other economic model is right and rests are wrong. It will be unwise to completely reject any economic system by saying this model is not right because its basis are capitalist or socialist. The point to discuss here is which economic system is appropriate and which is inappropriate for any country because of its internal and external conditions and its geopolitical location on globe. For example some writers and economist argue that Pakistan cannot remain neutral and isolated from world politics because of its geopolitical importance as a result it faced serious internal and external threats both economic and security as Pakistan experiences currently. Pakistan played vital role in world politics since its birth. The main objective of this essay is to explore the interplay between world economic system and Pakistani state which result into underdeveloped Pakistan. The reason for poor and under develop Pakistan are these two variables, world economic system and state itself. In terms of Pakistan s economic situation I would agree with dependency theorist who state that the underdeveloped situation of any country of third world is due to the exploitative nature of global economic system.

When I say the world economic system means the core countries which provide capital to world financial institution like IMF and World Bank. These institutions provide conditioned based capital which exploits countries like Pakistan to get their own objectives. For example In 80s Pakistani economy is exploited by West to achieve its own goals against Soviet Union and currently the same interplay is to get control of the central Asian countries which are full of natural resources. The other variable for under development of Pakistan is state itself which I mean is military civil bureaucracy and judiciary. Since mid 50s these three state pillars played vital role in state economic and political policies. In 1958 the first martial law was imposed in Pakistan and thus the stage was set to accommodate western interest in Pakistan. It was during the first decade of independence that interplay of domestic, regional and international factors saw the civil bureaucracy and the army as vital forces of state and provided their full support to these forces to get full dominance over [political] parties and politicians. From here the Pakistani economy became dependent over these western forces and the garrison state became an ideal state structure for neoliberals to make their power base stronger in Pakistan. If we look at brief political history of Pakistan it is evident that much of the period is taken up by directly military rule. Between 1958 and 1988 almost 25 years the state is governed by military dictatorship. For only brief period of five years the Pakistan first popularly elected Z A Bhutto challenged the power base of neo liberals and tried to dismantle the power structure through reforms. As a result Bhutto was hanged by another military dictator. The other reasons for underdevelopment are complete failure of whole state system in delivering basic rights to its citizens. E.g. the common man can get hardly any justice from our courts and similarly the corruption in state systems like police, judiciary, army and civil bureaucracy is increasing day by day. In my point of view currently the unchecked corruption is as bigger threat as terrorism to the deteriorating economy of Pakistan as it has been impeding all economic development in country and it has serious repercussions on future of Pakistan economy. Conclusion The penetration of global neo- liberal capital in the economy of Pakistan not only creates socioeconomic problems, such as unemployment, poverty and hunger, but also constantly generates new challenges for the political system by supporting military dictatorships in Pakistan. Secondly the economic autonomy of Pakistan is largely determined by interplay of the state and the world economic system with the dominant position of the World economic system.