IS PRIVATIZATION IN PAKISTAN PURPOSEFUL?

Dr. Akhtar Hasan Khan The philosophy of privatization stems from the role of state in economic life. The thinking of the international financial institutions and free market economists is that, as in USA, the state should confine itself to regulation only and the operation and ownership of industrial enterprises and utilities should be left to the private sector. However, there is an opposite view expressed by a distinguished economic historian, Gershenkron, in his seminal article Economic Backwardness in Historical Perspective1. Gerschenkrons argument is that in those states which start late in the race of