Inaugural Address

Abstract

It is a matter of great pleasure and privilege for me to inaugurate the Eighth Annual General Meeting of the Pakistan Society of Development Economists and to address such a distinguished group of professional economists and policymakers. Many of you will recall Lord Keynes famous remark, "Every politician is a slave of some defunct economist". Perhaps the only way for a politician to escape that Keynesian trap is to remain an economist. That is what I am trying to do, but I have begun to realise that the principles of good economics cannot always be reconciled with the requirements of politics. Similarly, a Finance Minister cannot always be both popular and patriotic at the same time. Often he has to make a deliberate choice of taking unpopular decisions in the national interest.