Mosharraf Zaidi

Article Type

Article

Description

Amidst all the noise surrounding cheese imports and crowd-sourcing for vital national security infrastructure, there was news of two new committees established under the chairpersonship of Dr Ishrat Husain, who is the adviser for institutional reforms and austerity, and effectively the full federal minister for reforms. Many have long anticipated the opportunity for Pakistan to undertake real reforms. Among them, the most important group is PTI voters and supporters. The effectiveness with which the word reform is used by Prime Minister Imran Khan, and the seriousness with which the government’s efforts for reform are taken, is above all other considerations, an issue of the credibility of PM Khan’s credentials as a reformist. For this reason, his choice of Dr Husain as the point-person for reforms makes eminent sense. Dr Husain has served the government of Pakistan as a CSP civil servant, worked for two decades in the World Bank in senior positions across Africa, Central Asia and the Middle East, and been the governor of the State Bank of Pakistan. He was also the chairperson of the National Commission Government Reforms (NCGR) from 2006 to 2008 and has published several books assessing the poor conditions of Pakistanis and the dysfunction of government. Perhaps most importantly, Dr Husain has extensive interface and experience with the international community. He understands not only the imperatives and complexities of Pakistan’s internal governance, but also the intimate dynamic and interplay between those dynamics and the international community.

Publication Source

The News

Publication Date

9-11-2018

Pages

1-3

Notes

The writer is an analyst and commentator.

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