You know your country has serious issues when it becomes a case study for potential future leaders and managers. In Pakistan’s case, its situation is being taught at the Harvard Business School.

The case study titled ‘Pakistan at 75: When Will the “Nazuk Mor” End?’ is for use in Professor Alberto Cavallo’s the Business, Government, and the International Economy - Spring 2024 at Harvard Business School, and currently making the rounds in WhatsApp groups.

The school’s MBA programme was ranked 11th in FT Rankings for 2024.

Case studies are a common method of teaching in business schools and used by professors to present students a real-life example, followed by discussions on how to resolve issues facing the entity.

This case study makes the reference to ‘Nazuk Mor’ in its title, a phrase rather repeatedly used during political sloganeering and to convey Pakistan’s persistent problems with political instability, interference in running government affairs, corruption, and constant boom-and-bust economic cycles.

The reference to 75 comes from Pakistan, which earned independence in 1947, facing the same issues even in 2023 – not much changed in 2024 either – with bailouts from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), loss-making state-owned entities, and high inflation continuing to dominate headlines. While elections did take place in February 2024, the new government has been formed with reluctant partners, and analysts believe that decision-making would again be problematic.

Business Recorder reached out to the Harvard Business Publishing (HBP) Special Permissions Team to reproduce excerpts of the case study or republish it in full. The request was denied by its team in an emailed response.

The case study was prepared by Harvard Business School Professor Meg Rithmire, Salaar A. Shaikh (MBA Class of 2023), and Hong Zhang (Post-Doctoral Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School).