THE same question keeps coming up: why don’t you write about the solutions? Let me give two answers here.

The first answer is that, in all honesty, the kind with hand on heart, nobody is really interested in solutions in Pakistan. They all just want to hear what they believe to be true. If you don’t tell them what they want to hear, they tune out. To some extent, this is the result of an algorithmically generated reality that more and more people are living in. Algorithms are very keenly tuned to what the user wants to see, hear, read or who the user wishes to interact with. They then serve this up and the user grows increasingly accustomed to receiving processed thoughts in easily digestible form that most closely approximate the user’s own preferences.

My experience is that when you tell people things they don’t want to hear, they either tune out, start arguing, interrupt with a stream-of-consciousness-style monologue of their own diagnosis and solutions or, especially seen among the young on social media, react viscerally, usually with hate, abuse, mockery and derision. This is the cognitive impairment of an algorithmically conditioned mind. People are losing the ability to engage with views different from their own.

Helpfully though, there are still enough people who don’t suffer from this syndrome that a meaningful conversation can be carried out. To those people I say my second thing: what problem are you trying to solve?

Whenever talking about solutions, it is critical to first have clarity on the problem, because the obvious question is, ‘solution to what?’ When it comes to the economy, for example, are we asking for a solution to the economy’s inability to earn foreign exchange in quantities sufficient to pay for its import requirements? Or are we asking for solutions to the inability to raise revenues in quantities sufficient to pay for the expenditure requirements of the state, without running up unsustainable levels of debt? Speaking of debt, is our envisioned solution to pay this debt down or to raise the state’s capacity to carry the burden of servicing this debt? Are we talking about how to pump growth, or how to bring about a kind of growth that is sustainable, and that lifts people out of poverty, creates opportunities for the young and, overall, secures the livelihoods of the citizenry?

When talking about solutions, it is critical to first have clarity on the problem.

I could go on but you get the point hopefully. You cannot answer ‘all of the above’, because then the solution becomes a philosophical one: we must learn to be better human beings first. We must root our power in the legitimate aspirations of the people before embarking on any transformative enterprise on a broad front. We must learn to respect the opposition, build consensus the hard way through structured dialogue, build institutions that discharge their obligations with vigour and rigour (pardon the flourish there, please) and, very importantly, that stay within the bounds they are designed for. For broad-based solutions, it is better to have a broad-based mandate.

In the absence of this, the ambition to solve Pakistan’s problems should remain confined to a narrow pragmatic corridor. And this would be my advice to those running the country: focus on a few things that can be done, where success carries the promise of cascading change, where known metrics for success can be developed.

There are two areas in particular where the focus can lie. Both are technology-based, and both promise cascading change across the economy as success rolls on. One is digital payments and the second is renewable energy, especially solar plus battery solutions.

Both of these areas have the potential to free the country from a long-standing problem that has been hobbling growth for decades. Digital payments can help document the economy. Solar can help free us from rising energy costs and the circular debt. In both areas, known performance metrics can easily be developed.

Here is an interesting statistic regarding digital payments: 90 per cent of retail transactions are being made via digital channels now, but these account for only 33pc of the total value of retail transactions. No doubt, there is rapid and growing adoption of digital payment channels. For example, in the first quarter of this year, close to Rs55 trillion were cleared via digital channels compared to Rs10tr via cheques and paper instruments. This shows growing adoption of digital payment channels, but most of the economy still remains stuck in old-fashioned cash.

The prime minister is trying to advance this process with a steering committee and some announcements about making Islamabad cashless. But the real challenge is at the retail level, and encouraging adoption there means making digital transfers faster, using QR codes, perhaps. Digital has displaced paper clearing, but has not made much of a dent in cash-based settlements. Once two-thirds of all retail transactions, by value, are being processed via digital channels, we will potentially have a different economy, with enough potential to unlock the next generation of business opportunities. Until then, it will still be a ‘general store’ model of the economy that we’ll be stuck with.

It is the same with solar plus battery. The first thing to do here is to ignore the bureaucrats’ ent­reaties to put the power system’s ‘fixed costs’ at the centre of their policy effort. Something along the lines of what was done with PIA needs to be done with the circular debt and the dead, white elephants we are carrying in the power sector. Phase them out and look to solar plus battery to power the future instead. Once freed from the grid, people’s entrepreneurial energies will take over, because with new forms of business enterprises that become possible with flexible energy generation and distribution systems that solar makes possible, the sky is the limit. Focus on the possible, and focus on those areas that carry a transformative potential. The rest works itself out.

The writer is a business and economy journalist.

[email protected]

X: @khurramhusain

Published in Dawn, January 8th, 2026