The areas comprising Pakistan came under British control and influence between 85 to 120 years later than the territories that now comprise India. The British set up their first trading company in Surat on the western coast of India 200 years before the first Englishman set foot in Sindh, Pakistan. Britain’s first formal colonising presence in India came with the establishment of Fort William in Calcutta in 1758, while they took control of Sindh 85 years later in 1843, Punjab (which included most of what is NWFP today) 91 years later in 1849, and northern Balochistan 118 years later in 1876. Resultantly, Pakistan did not receive the same level of “modernising” influence that India did and the level of social and political development in a large part of Pakistan was more or less the same on the eve of independence as it was a century earlier.
Economically too, Pakistan remained the backyard of Britain’s south Asian empire and had yet to enter the industrial age at the time of independence in 1947. Pakistan’s development journey needs to be seen in this context. Every milestone needs to be read with respect to Point Zero, i.e., from where did Pakistan begin and a comparison between 1947 and 2006 shows the tremendous progress Pakistan has made. A sample of statistics provides the evidence.
Exclusively agricultural
The country’s economy in 1947 was almost exclusively agricultural, most of it subsistence. There were less than a dozen medium-scale manufacturing units; now there are more than 10,000 large-scale enterprises, which employ one-sixth of the labour force. The index of manufacturing production has increased more than 200-fold from 100 to 21,250.
Expansion of infrastructure is impressive. The index of electricity generation has grown 16-fold from 100 to 16,200. There was a mere 6 kilometers of roads per square kilometer, which has now increased 5-fold to 32 kilometres. There was just one vehicle per 150 households, which has now risen to one vehicle for every third household. There were only 4 landline telephones per 1,500 households, which has now risen 82-fold to one for every fifth household. There was one doctor per 725,000 persons, which now stands at 1,300. There was one nurse per 187,000 persons, which now stands at 3,000. And so on. The aggregate view shows that annual per capita income in 2000 prices was Rs1750, which has now expanded 20 fold to Rs35,000.
Having covered the missing ground over the last half a century, the challenge for Pakistan now is to leapfrog onto a higher plane of economic performance. It is a resource rich country without the burden of heavy over-population, unlike India or Bangladesh.
There are, of course, serious gaps in physical infrastructure and in social and human development. However, subject to a minimum degree of political stability, the country is poised for progress.