Lodhi Quotes

You need to be smart enough to ask stupid questions.

Alongside the data on Pakistan’s economic achievements since 1947, Pakistan’s quasi-official history acknowledges the country’s persistent need to borrow and seek aid. But these economic problems are, in Lodhi’s words, ‘rooted in poor state management, not Pakistan’s economic fundamentals’. In fact, this last point has been an essential part of the Pakistani national narrative over the years: Pakistan has just not found a great leader since Jinnah, the Quaid-i-Azam (literally, the great leader) ‘to unlock Pakistan’s potential’. Its problem is only ‘poor governance, rule without law, and shortsighted leadership’, which have ‘mired the country in layers of crises that have gravely retarded Pakistan’s progress and development’.