Globalisation of Pakistan: Lessons for Politically Unstable Countries

摘要

Abstract Pakistan was one of the founder members of World Trade Organisation (WTO) and also a founder member in its erstwhile General Agreement on Trade and Tariff (GATT) but, people in Pakistan were not much exposed to globalization. The reasons for non-proliferation of awareness could be many particularly, political will, available communication infrastructure, implementation policies, literacy rate, form of government etc. The economic liberalization has been opted not as a policy generated indigenously but largely as an obligation under the conditionalities imposed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank through their Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP). The Structural Adjustment Programme has been a big failure in Pakistan. As part of this SAP, Pakistan received approximately US$ 31 billion in the form of external assistance and International Monetary Fund loans during 1985 to 2000 but, the amount spent for improving the infrastructure and poverty reduction was very minimal. Along with SAP Pakistan started its privatization process. But the results are not very encouraging since then; the privatization commission has completed privatizing 165 companies. The liberalization process is mainly carried out in Financial sector, Trade, Legal system, Administration, agriculture, education and Health care sector.This process actually aggravated job market. It has been a sour phenomenon for young people who are looking for a job as the unemployment rate is growing. The agriculture sector and trade did not show any significant performance after globalization. Higher poverty incidences were reported during post globalization. Health sector and Educational sector needs lot to be done to fine tune itself in coherence with the development going around. This article focuses on the globalization process in Pakistan and its consequences, to bring into limelight that globalization need to be managed prudently. The other countries with unstable political scenario should have to think and rethink why it went wrong in Pakistan. ? Key words : Globalization, Reform process, Privatization, Pakistan, Structural Adjustment Programme,