Pakistan, Feb. 6 -- Walk through any bazaar in Lahore, Karachi, Faisalabad, or Multan, and you will hear the same story repeated in different accents: salaries finish before the month does, groceries are bought in smaller quantities, children's school fees are delayed, and medical bills are avoided until they become emergencies. This is not an abstract economic crisis. It is lived daily, in kitchens where cooking oil is measured carefully and in living rooms where electricity meters are watched more closely than television screens.

Yet here is the uncomfortable truth: Pakistan is not inherently poor. It is systematically mismanaged, unevenly governed, and economically designed in a way that transfers pressure downward while protection fl...