Pakistan, Aug. 14 -- At the moment of its birth in August 1947, Pakistan inherited an economy that was fragile and unbalanced. It was overwhelmingly agrarian, with agriculture contributing more than half of GDP and providing nearly all export earnings. Per capita income was scarcely a few hundred dollars. Industrial capacity was minimal, financial institutions were rudimentary, and the country had to create its own central bank within weeks of independence. The new state leaned heavily on public sector-led industrialization in the 1950s and 1960s, using development plans financed by foreign aid and remittances, but this early promise would be tested by decades of political upheaval, policy reversals, and external shocks.

In those early y...