Ahmed Jamal Pirzada

(Editor’s Note: In this, the fifth in a series on Pakistan’s New Growth Strategy – see here and here and here and here – the author (a consultant with the Pakistan Planning Commission working on the new growth strategy) responds to some of the concerns raised by critics of the strategy.  The Planning Commission of Pakistan has invited ideas and suggestions on this and we invite and encourage our readers to please help in highlighting the best and most innovative ideas they can think of.)

Much of the response received by the Growth Strategy document of the Pakistan planning commission has so far remained very much encouraging. It will be alright for me to reveal that significant number of comments received from the civil society, youth, educationists, donor agencies etc. have been incorporated in the revised draft which will be shared in few weeks time. However, there still are some comments which can only be answered through increased interaction between the strategy team lead and the interested community.

In the interest of encouraging exactly such a conversation, here I present some of the criticisms which have been observed on different forums and some preliminary responses.

Adil Najam

Nadeem Omar

As we think of floods and of displacement once again, this photographs from F.E. Chaudhry of the 1950 flood depicts Chacha‘s ability to turn a news story into a human story.

A narrative photograph of the Punjabi victims of the 1950 flood in the wake of which nearly three thousands perished. Their villages and homes submerged, a family has taken refuge in a railway bogey, which serves as a kitchen as well as shelter from the blistering heat.