The Influence of Global Institions on Pakistan
The colonization of third-world nations resulted in the underdevelopment that was sparked by resource extraction in these nations. Over time, scarce resources and authoritarian rule caused civil unrest, political unrest, poverty, and interregional warfare in these developing regions. The literature currently available on the historical background of development theory focuses on industrialized, developed nations and ignores their colonial history that led to underdevelopment in countries like Pakistan today. Whilst also preserving a monopolistic system over these regions, authors like Andre Gunder Frank argued that expansionist capitalism only desired to acquire and seize the resources from these regions in order to spur their own development and support the lifestyles of their aristocracy. These writers rejected the dichotomy between conventional life and modern life. The growth of the developed world’s economy is directly tied to the downfall of that of the developing world. Due to developing countries establishing a level of living that third-world countries must adopt in their own civilizations, underdevelopment has evolved. It is not an ancient or native phenomena. The industrialized western world continues to exploit third-world nations for resources and labor because it believes that industrialization and urbanization are the only paths to modernization. Additionally, individuals in the third world who view westernization as development have developed an inferiority complex because of this ongoing exploitation.
Because Pakistani culture has been conditioned to see westernization or neo-liberalism as a universally applicable gateway to modernity, Eurocentric development plans have been developed that are wholly incompatible with third-world societies. Neo-liberalism in the West is viewed as a fresh strategy for developing impoverished governments around the world, even though conventional and contemporary developmental frameworks are founded on the experiences of a small number of industrialized western civilizations. It is difficult to develop development strategies that consider the demands and interests of many groups or ethnicities by importing frameworks from developed-western countries into multiethnic eastern civilizations. It is necessary to “unlearn” preconceived views about development and devise policies that consider the sociopolitical, cultural, environmental, and economic circumstances of third-world countries. It is challenging to think of western frameworks as being applicable to Pakistan’s situation since its conception of growth is always changing as it creates new development opportunities or closes existing ones. The entire neo-liberal agenda is basically a mechanism used by the World Hegemon to keep control of the world’s politics and economy.
As a result, international organizations like the United Nations, IMF, and World Bank, which are a part of a transnational coalition of a few chosen nations that form most of the global superpower hierarchy, have severe control over Pakistan’s development strategies. These institutions provide Pakistan with development objectives and metrics that are mostly focused on Europe. Antonio Gramsci initially proposed the notion of a group of elites in charge of a hegemonic framework that provides a set of guidelines that governments are forced to abide by. Certain sociopolitical and economic ideals that constitute this alliance of developed countries’ shared interests and ideologies for imposing control over the world’s poor countries are also shared by other developed countries. Additionally, the world hegemon employs a combination of agreement and compulsion through economic tools rather than the authoritative coercion that is inherent to imperialism. For instance, pressure from the US and financial institutions that had placed stringent economic sanctions on Russia in wake of the Ukrainian Crisis prevented Pakistan from negotiating a significantly cheaper energy contract with Russia in 2022. Considering this, the global hegemon produces circumstances that force nations like Pakistan to go to its institutions for foreign aid or other forms of financial support.
For their economies to continue to grow, developing nations like Pakistan significantly rely on foreign aid and metrics defined by international financial institutions and Global dominance. International institutions are used by the USA and other industrialized countries to stabilize their own economies. Global Hegemony controls these institutions. The largest percentage of shares in international organizations like the World Bank are held by the United States. The World Bank was able to build a solid moral character with the support of its “voices,” which gave it the power to direct governments of poor countries to follow certain development objectives. The World Bank has gained legitimacy for increasingly widespread regulatory incursions in the society of developing countries, even during the now-discredited structural adjustment regimes. Pakistan loses its own policy-making authority when it turns to these institutions for help, and the policies are closely watched and carried out by these institutions, which are mostly controlled by the US and European nations. However, these strategies are inappropriate for emerging nations because they have no idea of the ground realities of that country, and they are just implementing policies according to their western mindset which results in the destruction of the economy of that country. Therefore, these policies do not provide the advantages they do for industrialized nations.
When it comes to serving its multi-ethnic segment of the population, Western civilization is uniform and renowned for its pluralism, yet emerging nations like Pakistan have a multi-ethnic population and a greater increasing illiteracy rate. Western policies failed in Pakistan because of the country’s diverse people and high rate of illiteracy. Consider the fact that Pakistan’s e-commerce policy appears to be failing as a result of demographic diversity and illiteracy. Pakistan does not have the same level of technological development as major western nations, nor does its population possess the social understanding necessary to fully use such developments. In addition, neither Pakistani institutions nor its citizens are prepared to implement development strategies that are aimed at improving the state of the nation. They are not mentally prepared to accept the change at such a level and in some cases if some society or a group tries to adopt the change, they face resistance which results in the degradation of their morale, and they cannot further fight against such norms. The major reason is that they have no money to learn and remain up to date with technology and keep an eye on the world and what is going on.
Sikander Ali is a final-year student studying Public Administration at the National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST)
