I struggle these days whenever someone asks me for my political affiliation. I would rather describe myself as an “Industrial Democrat”, meaning “we the people who are looking at basic survival and to reinvent the Pakistani industry anew”. Why I am suddenly so concerned about this today is because the average Pakistani struggles for jobs and for his survival in an honest way, whereas the primary sector — manufacturing — to address this is eroding at a fast pace (Pakistan is de-industrialising). All this while our economic managers invariably keep coming up with the wrong answers to the right questions. The present economic strategy surely seems headed in the wrong direction: looking outwards instead of inwards; no clear vision on building a sustainable supply chain; inflation out of control; loss of competitiveness; absence of focus on shoring up ease of doing business; poorly negotiated trade deals compounded by corruption, smuggling........

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