This is apropos a Business Recorder oped “Politics and economy” carried by the newspaper a couple of weeks ago. The writer, Sirajuddin Aziz, has concluded his argument by saying that “There is a need for planned obsolescence of the current crop of political leadership, largely found in the developing countries.
Politics and economics are like Siamese twins; inter-twined and conjoined. It was Z.A. Bhutto who had thundered that political independence is meaningless without economic independence. He knew to be an effective politician, one has to be good at economics“. I’m deeply impressed by the subtlety of writer’s argument.
However, through economics politicians have the opportunity to transform their respective people’s lives for better or for worse. Essentially, it is the availability of finances or financial resources that helps a political leader to shape his perspective on his approach to overall governance in general and economy in particular.
ZAB’s rule was strongly characterized by, among other things, highly questionable process of Nationalization. But his initiative or policy of taking privately-owned companies, including industries, and putting them under the control of government did not work or backfired for a host of reasons.
Nevertheless, the greatest attribute of ZAB, in my view, was his ability to look at bigger picture, knowing well that the success of a nation does not necessarily hinge on the economic might of any country. Needless to say, economy and politics are two areas of human activity that are strongly interconnected; and ZAB fully appreciated this fact.
Sultan Farooqui (Karachi)
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
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