Loud Thinking

Helen Keller said : ‘The most pathetic person in the world is some one who has sight but no vision.’

Mr. Ahsan Iqbal, if we have no home grown vision for Pakistan it means we are not only blind but nincompoop, as well.

If we can’t give future direction for Pakistan, than better outsource the country to China, rather than hiring a western firm, to provide vision 2025 for Pakistan.

Moreover, if Planning Commission of Pakistan can’t perform this basic job for the nation; and wants it done through consultants, then why not close this ministry and allocate the relevant assignments to the Finance Ministry?

This situation is a farce and looks like a joke with the nation; and is synonymous with the situation, where a husband hires another man, to perform his own responsibilities.

An Express Tribune news…

Shaky ground: Govt considers McKinsey for help with Vision 2025

By Shahbaz Rana / Creative: Jamal KhurshidPublished: October 9, 2013

The Planning Commission (PC) is considering engaging the global management consulting firm ‘McKinsey & Company’ – a company that has in the past failed to produce a quality report on Pakistan despite charging $5 million − to prepare Vision 2025 for the country.

The PC’s desire to involve McKinsey in preparation of a policy document that it believes will set the priorities of a nation of 180 million people for next 12 years, has raised questions of aligning such policy prescription with ground realities.

Mckinsey had been engaged by the previous government, and paid $5million by the Asian Development Bank on behalf of Pakistan, a huge sum for just one report of questionable quality.

“The McKinsey’s report was fancy but a terrible one in terms of content”, said former deputy chairman Planning Commission Dr Nadeem ul Haque. Haque said he had contacted the McKinsey’s partners thrice and asked them to defend their work, but no one turned up. On one occasion, he said, one of the McKinsey partners admitted the poor quality of the work and promised to revisit the report.

Dr Haque said his predecessor Salman Faruqi had sanctioned $5 million payment to McKinsey.

The timing of giving McKinsey a stake in the new ‘visionary’ document coincides with a three-year International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) programme that has already set policy directions at least for the programme period. The ministry of finance is in the driving seat at the moment and has kept the planning ministry out of the loop. It did not engage the planning ministry when it was finalising the IMF programme that carries far reaching adverse implications on economic growth.

In a conference organised by the PC recently, Salman Ahmad, a partner at McKinsey had claimed that the previous government had shelved his company’s work.

When contacted, Asif Sheikh, the spokesman for the PC, said the government has not yet decided to formally engage the McKinsey.

Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Reforms, Ahsan Iqbal, was keen on preparing a new vision for the country aimed at stabilising economy and ensuring sustainable inclusive growth. However, the biggest obstacle for the commission, according to the minister, was the PC’s capacity constraint.

He has promised to develop the vision by the end of this year but so far the blueprint of the vision is not ready. Sources close to the minister said that Iqbal was upset about the slow pace of work and wanted to hire consultants from the private sector to complete the exercise.

Despite McKinsey’s poor work, Iqbal wanted to engage the firm to overcome capacity constraints, a strategy that is not received well in the PC, according to sources. While acknowledging capacity constraints, PC officials said that the continued indifference of the policymakers towards strengthening the PC led to demise in the working of the Commission.

They said that instead of doling out millions of dollars to these international consultants the government should focus on the Commission or else it should be closed down. The previous government turned the Commission into a project processing unit while compromising on its policy role.

Ahsan Iqbal was not available for comment.

In a similar case, the PC has also engaged Dr Khalid Ikram as a consultant on Vision 2025. Dr Ikram was also involved in the preparation of the Framework for Economic Growth (FEG), prepared by the previous government.

Asif Sheikh said that the PC had requested the ADB to provide assistance in preparation of the Vision 2025 and Dr Khalid Ikram was selected by the ADB. “We have accepted the ADB’s choice”, he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 9th, 2013.

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