Influencing from Afar: Role of Pakistani Diaspora in Public Policy and Development in Pakistan

Abstract

It would be difficult to find the names of many Pakistani economists or other public policy experts, who have served the Government of Pakistan in the most senior of positions since the end of the 1970s, who were not part of Pakistan’s extensive diaspora of public policy professionals, based abroad, usually in international financial or international development organizations. Whether they were invited to become Pakistan’s Finance Minister, Advisors to the Prime Minister or Finance Minister, Minister of Planning and Development (Deputy Chairman Planning Commission) or Governor of the State Bank of Pakistan (Pakistan’s Central Bank), many have been part of Pakistan’s diaspora. Moreover, there have even been two cases where two bankers, one from the World Bank and the other from Citibank, both based abroad as part of Pakistan’s diaspora, were asked to become — one directly and one after becoming the Finance Minister first — Prime Ministers of Pakistan.KeywordsPublic PolicyMuslim WomanFinance MinisterSenior PositionMilitary GovernmentThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.