Problem: Pakistan does not suffer from absence of power. Pakistan suffers from misaligned power. Solution: Pak Army should not govern Pakistan. Pak Army should not replace civilians. What the army must do is re-engineer the state’s operating system so that economic growth becomes automatic, not episodic.
Pakistan does not need a coup. Pakistan does not need technocracy. Pakistan does not need populism. All that Pakistan needs is command clarity. History is unforgiving to overreach -- as the Myanmar Tatmadaw learned after the 2021 coup. Clarity stabilises states. Overreach breaks them.
Goal: Pakistan must target 5-7 per cent annual per-capita GDP growth for the next decade. At that pace, per-capita income rises from $1,600 to $3,200 within ten years. Arithmetic, not ideology.
Vehicle: A re-engineered SIFC, modeled on South Korea’s Economic Planning Board under General Park Chung-hee (1961–79). Pakistan needs an institutional anchor -- one that hard-wires continuity, survives political cycles and executes policy at speed. Yes, growth needs a target and delivery needs a command.
Tools: Three engines. Three force multipliers. Force multiplier 1: Minerals -- copper, gold, rare earths, antimony. Convert rocks into revenue through contracts, offtake security and downstream processing -- not rent-seeking. Force multiplier 2: IT services -- exports without ports. Dollars without debt. Scale through regulatory certainty and payments access. Force multiplier 3: Defence services -- training, maintenance, upgrades, co-production. Monetise capability without militarising politics.
Three Operations: Operation FDI Surge, Operation Hybrid Harmony and Operation Iron Frontier. FDI does not flow into noise; it flows into predictability. Must keep the home front quiet as FDI battalions land. The western border must be fortified.
Signalling: To investors and to markets, a unified command signals predictability; predictability lowers risk premiums; lower risk premiums unlock capital. Markets do not price intentions. Markets price systems. Principle: The army secures the system; continuity is enforced through institutionalised command; civilians deliver growth.
Growth has long been a slogan in Pakistan. Red alert: Growth is not a slogan - it is an institutional outcome. No growth survives broken contracts - mining, IT, defence exports all die without enforceability. Special commercial courts or fast-track contract arbitration must be part of the re-engineered state. Without contract sanctity, capital behaves rationally -- it stays away.
Pakistan’s fiscal structure is designed to leak; growth cannot outrun a fiscal structure designed to leak. Energy leaks drain 5.0 per cent of GDP. Provinces spend, center borrows. The result is a permanent deficit machine where liabilities are centralised and accountability is diffused. Until this structural deficit is fixed, every growth spurt will end in another balance-of-payments crisis.
States fail not from lack of courage but from confused command. We must think in terms of doctrine, not personalities. Every successful military reform begins with three things: unity of command, clear rules of engagement and defined lines of authority. Economies are no different. Without a single operational headquarters, reforms fragment and timelines slip. To be certain, command clarity is not authoritarianism but mission discipline.
Re-engineering Pakistan is not about who rules Pakistan. It is about how Pakistan functions. Same country. Different operating system. Same battlespace. Different command architecture. Same state. Different chain of command. Same map. Different rules of engagement.
The writer is a columnist based in Islamabad. He tweets/posts @saleemfarrukh and can be reached at: [email protected]
