ABSTRACT
This chapter traces the roots of the discourse on human development by analysing the 70-year economic history of the country. It focuses on the utility of economic history as a science that can facilitate honest and accurate assessments of the economy, thereby enabling effective policy design and formulation. Economic actors and institutions often behave in harmony or discord with certain historical trends and hence need to be understood against the backdrop of these long-term trajectories. Pakistan’s problems, deprivations and insecurities at the time of Partition in 1947 are well documented, although it is conjectured intentional omissions were made to protect the political interests of certain groups and individual stakeholders. Economic actors and institutions are often dependent upon the past and to make inferences about them without analysing their historic behavioural patterns and interactions with other actors and institutions is often expected to result in inaccurate assessments of the economy.
