On Thursday, October 19, 2023, Dr. Rashid Amjad, Professor of Economics and Director, Graduate Institute of Development Studies, Lahore School of Economics, delivered a lecture to the participants of 34^th SMC on “Economic Planning and Development in Pakistan”. He started his discourse by discussing the change in the development paradigm and explained the implications of this shift on economic planning. He presented a brief overview of the Big Push theory. Rostow’s stages of growth and the Washington Consensus.

He also gave an account of the institutional set up of the planning machinery in Pakistan, while also narrating the history of economic planning in Pakistan. He also highlighted that during the period 1960-1990, Pakistan was amongst the 10 fastest growing economies of the world, but we lost the momentum later. In the end he also threw light on the new global trends citing examples of UK, India and China.