IN Pakistan’s recent history, billionaire bankers and former staff of multilateral institutions, among others, have led national development. After assuming office as finance minister, one was alleged to have declared that he empathised with ordinary people and then promptly imposed a tax on baby food in a country where, due to malnutrition, 40 per cent of children are stunted. The results are hardly what we had hoped for.

How, then, should national development policy be made? Let us take a hypothetical case of a recently formed country, its borders determined by departing colonialists. It is not a ‘civilisational state’ with thousands of years of shared history, so the allegiance and love of its people should now be earned.

There must be a clear rationale for forming the new country. A civilised society might agree that its rationale is the welfare of its citizens: people come together to improve their standard of living, to have equal opportunity to reach their full potential, and to live by their values. The citizens are to pay a share of their income to a common fund, from which the state would administer services to all, such as education, healthcare, support for economic endeavour and security. The country must be........

© Dawn