DOES POLITICAL LEADERSHIP MATTER FOR THE ECONOMIC GROWTH OF POOR COUNTRIES LIKE PAKISTAN? AN EMPIRICAL APPROACH

The political conditions in Pakistan have a topsy-turvy trend which allows the military to hold public offices without the consent of general public. Strong military dominance due to inability of elected political leaderships gives them a despotic control. The periodic on-off state of democracy has some serious repercussions on socioeconomic conditions in the country. In that context, this paper empirically investigates the role of political leadership on economic growth of the country. A composite index of political leadership sustainability (PSI) is developed by summing up four diverse indices of development. Our empirical results confirm that political leadership index is declined for democracies when we take per capita GDP as a dependent variable implying that economic growth was much higher in non-democratic regimes than democracies in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. It can be concluded that elected political leadership couldn't accomplish the core task of sustainable growth achievement due to public sector corruption and political unrest. The unconstitutional deficiencies dragged the country in a backward direction and seriously hurt the process of economic development. It is concluded that a continuous pattern of elected regimes is indispensable for a long run sustainable economic growth in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.