The elite of the country are actually doing it to themselves. They have a large population, in Pakistan, of basically serfs, and haven’t figure out a way to earn foreign capital from them (by employing them in export earning industries) in a sustainable and growing manner.
South Korea copied some of pakistan’s plans from the 60s, but between then and the rise of Zia, it was basically a shortcut mindset to eat the seeds you have in hand then to plant them and grow an ever expanding garden.
When Deng came into power in China, he visited the East Asian tiger economies and realizes he had economies of scale, and used it to mend ties with the world only 20 years after the Korean War and just after the Vietnam war.
Part of what must be to blame is the game of musical chairs, different factions of the elite are competing with each other for “their share” of an ever shrinking pie.