Mr Hasan Nawaz Tarar, Secretary Planning, Development and
Reforms, Dr Asad Zaman, Dr Musleh ud Din, distinguished economists,
members of the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE) and
the Pakistan Society of Development Economists, students, ladies and
gentleman, it is indeed a great honour and privilege for me to open the
PSDE’s Conference, which has become an annual feature of the Pakistan
Society of Development Economists. It offers us a great opportunity to
deliberate on the challenges that our country is facing. Before I
proceed with what I have to say, I would like to place on record my
appreciation for the outgoialso ng Vice Chancellor of PIDE, Dr Musleh ud
Din, who has provided leadership to PIDE and has been instrumental in
arranging this Conference. I would also like to welcome Dr Asad Zaman as
the new President of the PSDE and Vice Chancellor of PIDE. I hope that
under his leadership PIDE will touch, In šāʾ Allāh, new heights and
become a centre of excellence, not only in Pakistan but also in Asia.
Being in a meeting of economists and a leading public sector economic
think tank, I am reminded of an anecdote about an economist. A man was
walking by a road in countryside where he saw a flock of sheep. He could
not resist and said to the shepherd that he would like to make a bet on
correctly guessing the number of sheep in the flock. He said to the
shepherd that he would give him a hundred dollars if he were unable to
guess correctly the exact number of sheep. But if he were right, the
shepherd would give him one sheep from the flock. Shepherd thought that
it was a huge flock, this person had to be crazy, so it was an easy
hundred dollars and accepted the bet. Within a few minutes, the man said
that these were nine hundred and eighty one sheep. The shepherd was
surprised because the man was exactly right. He said he was man of his
word and told the man to pick up any of the sheep. The man picked up a
sheep and started to walk away. As he was walking away, the shepherd
said he wanted to get even with the man and asked him to make another
bet. He said that he could tell him exactly what his occupation was, to
which the man agreed. He was from a far off place and thought there was
no way the shepherd could guess his profession. The shepherd asked him
if he were an economist from a government think tank. The man was
greatly surprised because the shepherd was right. He asked the shepherd
how was he able to guess his profession. The shepherd asked him to put
down his dog first. The man had picked up shepherd’s dog instead of a
sheep! I hope it is not the case here and hopefully we have economists
who can not only count the sheep exactly but who can also pick sheep
from the flock and not a dog.