Pakistan is not doomed. It will continue to work very well for the military and the elite, and the expats will slowly assimilate in their adopted homelands over a few generations.
Do they expect remittances (beyond those from people sending to their families) to continue? They are the ones that will have to reinvest in the country more and more if they drive away the rest of the potential investors.
The sad irony is they; the elites, are the one most to benefit from just paying their fair share in taxes, and reaping the reward of a politically stable country. If Pakistan makes the necessary reforms like Indonesia or India, and for example grow like how Indonesia did for the last 24 years; at an average 11.25% year on year, by 2047 the current $350 billion economy will be $4.5 Trillion; with a GDP per capita of $12,500.
This is not idle speculation, but in line with estimates done by PwC: $4.2 Trillion by 2050.
KARACHI: In its recent analysis, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) predicts that Pakistan will achieve impressive growth rates over the next three decades,
www.economy.pk
In 2050, India’s demographic dividend will have ended and Pakistan’s may have another 20-25 years to go beyond 2050. Laying the ground work now, in 2023, is crucial.
They have the most to gain, disproportionately, just look at the wealth of all these countries a generation ago; millionaires are now billionaires. It’s sad that they don’t realize the opportunity they have in their hands. The definition of penny wise and dollar foolish. With that kind of economy in 2047, they can travel the world with their heads held high in the comity of nations, because nowadays in New York, when you tell the average person your from Pakistan they basically think it’s the same as Afghanistan. The same will happen to them when they go abroad nowadays.
Serious discussion, what kind of tax reforms are needed to turn this around? For example, Property tax should be at least 1% instead of the current supposedly 0.01% or 0.02% of a property’s (farm land and residential housing) value?