LAHORE: The Consortium for Development Policy Research (CDPR) launched Dr Ishrat Husain`s new book Governing the Ungovernable, inviting the economists and professionals to share their views here on Monday.

The book is a response to the long-standing national confusion as to why Pakistan did not graduate to join the ranks of countries such as China and Vietnam, given that it was economically ahead of them till 1990. It examines the reasons behind this slowdown, the volatile and inequitable growth of the last 25 years and through a process of theoretical and empirical evidence argues that the most powerful explanatory hypothesis lies in the decay of institutions of governance.

`I have found the parliament the weakest pillar of Pakistani state since it couldn`t perform well due to various reasons. I think if the parliament is empowered enough to work well with its parliamentary committees, there will be no need of the National Accountability Bureau, Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and any other insutudonfor a transparent accountabihty of all institutions,` Dr Ishrat Husain, former governorof the State Bank ofPakistan,said while speaking on the occasion.

`I am of the view that the parliamentary committees just keep showing their workfor the media projection rather than doing something important for the accountability,` he added.

The book suggests a selective and incremental approach for restructuring some key public institutions that pertain to accountability, transparency, security, economic growth, and equity. It explains why Pakistan is perceived as an `ungovernable` state? Can anything be done to get it back on the track from where it has derailed? For 40 years until 1990, Pakistan was among the top 10 performing developing countries on economic and social indicators. From 1990-2015, however, Pakistan became a laggard both economically as well as in social development in the region. What caused this slowdown? The former SBP governor wondered that he found Pakistan`s economic policies pretty good most of the time.

`But it was surprising for me to find these policies` outcomes as unsatisf actory.

`I found governance not phenomena of economics, government or public sector institutions alone but also of the private sector, societal norms, political parties, civil societies, NGOs and other institutions,` he maintained.

For this, he added, the strengthening of the parliament and its all committees was a need of the hour if we wanted to run this country with good governance.

Speaking on the occasion, economist Dr Ijaz Nabi termed Dr Ishrat`s book a way forward to improve governance.