It is important for Pakistan to implement Jinnah's economic policies.

Today, 25th December 2024, it is a national celebration day for Pakistan, as it is the birthday date of our country founder, Quaid-I-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah. His vision was not limited to just having an independence or having an independent state. His vision was economic development. Economic development is a must for any country to survive economically and to have a safe and secure future. He believed that just following mere West's economic policies would not help us to achieve a better future. He believed that we have to make our own policies, especially on the economic front, for a better future for our people, especially our youth, which is our backbone. By looking at our current situation, with current external debt of USD 125 billion, with minimal increase of exports, and reliance on remittance, it is totally opposite to what Quaid envisioned. His vision was based on economic equality, trade, and investment. 

1) Economic Equality. 

One of the key visions of Jinnah was fair share and economic equality among its people. Today, in Pakistan, it is a lost cause as the poor are getting poorer due to bad governance, clueless policies, clueless policymakers, and depending solely on borrowing loans and just increasing taxes instead of economic reforms, which has led us to where we are right now. He believed that Western policies are also not effective, as they do not provide equal opportunity, where he believed that everyone should be provided equal opportunity that would have resulted in tremendous economic growth, which would have depended solely on self-reliance and exports. Moreover, right now our policies are totally opposite, and the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer, which is creating a massive gap in equality, and this is one of the reasons for the increase in crimes and terror. 

2) Exports and Investment. 

Jinnah's policies were export, export, and export-based, which would require Pakistan to go towards industrialization like China and South Korea did. It is safe to say that Jinnah's vision was the same as China's and South Korea's on the economic front, and of course, we should see statistics of China and South Korea, and there is no comparison, because we are loan seekers, and both of those countries are a case study for other countries that show how they should focus on self-reliance and self-development, as both had many issues in the past but were determined to implement similarly to Quaid's vision, and now both China and South Korea are the top exporting countries all over the world. Moreover, no one says it is easy; however, just going with the status quo won't solve Pakistan's import-led growth issues and import-based economy issues, as it has always been unstable for Pakistan, which has led to a meltdown and currency devaluation many times. Pakistan has to change its fundamentals and follow Quaid's vision. 

3) Lesson for Us.

We all know the issues of Pakistan and its economic governance; however, if our policymakers would at least follow Qauid's vision on the economic front, we would have solved our loan dependency, higher tax rate issues, and the economic meltdown, which we are currently facing. We would have been an export-based country, and our growth would have been based on export bases like China and South Korea. It would benefit our youth, who want to leave Pakistan for a better job and future.