ABSTRACT
Pakistan's future will be influenced by the policies that its neighbors adopt toward particularly India but also Afghanistan, Iran, and Saudi Arabia. Pakistan's past purpose is therefore not very relevant in gauging its future prospects or even in defining the political and economic objectives that should be pursued. In the current world, therefore, Pakistan is no longer a geographical, cultural, religious, or economic absurdity. In fact, if anything— and for historical reasons— it has become a viable entity. In social development, the obvious goal is to improve the situation of those segments of the population, in particular women that have not benefited from whatever economic growth has occurred in the past. The growth of the Pakistani diaspora since the birth of the country has already had a profound impact on the economy, particularly in reducing poverty and in improving the level of social development of the communities that exported labor to the outside world.
