It is for this reason that India relied on a local boy Tata to privatise Indian Airlines and the move has not only become a great story of turnaround (since domestic captains know the terrain far better than their foreign counterparts) but has also ensured that India’s profits remain within India. This incidentally, takes us to the third facet of the government’s conversation on partnering with the private sector and luring foreign investment in different sectors of Pakistan like refining, infrastructure, mining, etc., and it is here where one tends to be the most concerned on what is being said.

Importantly, before committing to any unreasonable or foolhardy incentives just to grab funds, it is advisable for the present economic managers to take a pause in order to prudently assess where and how in the past such drives have gone wrong and cost the country dearly, meaning poorly thought through agreements either largely attributed to sheer incompetence or short-sightedness or perhaps vested interests; an introspection is required, especially by the present actors who continue to rule the roost for almost 5 decades now. Care needs to be taken that we do not end up repeating our past mistakes, as these are the very sort of mistakes that actually lie behind the economic impasse we face today. To quote a few examples and comparisons, our investment policy in the auto and motorcycle sectors has achieved scant little but has cost us dearly in exchange outflows. We continue to import kits expensively, agreed deletion benchmarks remain elusive, product development has been negligible or none & we continue........

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