"Which one is the biggest problem in developing countries," he asked in his poll and gave two answers-1) corruption of elite and 2) incompetence of elite.
Among those who took part in the poll, 60 percent voted for corruption as being the biggest problem in developing countries while 40 per cent blamed the incompetence.
Later, reacting to the results himself, Atif Mian put his weight behind the minority view.
"I will go with the minority view on this poll and argue that incompetence is the bigger constraint on development than corruption (of course ideally we want to avoid both)," he said, and then cited the examples of China and Saudi Arabia.
"They (China and Saudi Arabia) are both centralized power structures with a lot of corruption at the top. But Chinese system differs in one important way: it encourages competition within the power structure and favours those who can deliver stronger productivity (think of local government targets etc.)," he wrote.
"In a sense the Chinese recognize that a growing pie offers a lot more to pick from and enables centralised power to stay longer," he said, adding that Saudi Arabia was unable to do anything similar, with the result that there is no dynamism, and one sees glaringly incompetent policies like "Saudisation".
He continued: "The eventful success of a system relies on one key Question: How effectively does it delegate power to the most competent? There is no doubt that corruption can come in the way of such delegation. But even a corrupt system can deliver if it finds a way to delegate the competent."
For the wonkish reader, see the Coase Theorem, he concluded.
Coase Theorem is a legal and economic theory that affirms that where there are complete competitive markets with no transactions costs, an efficient set of inputs and outputs to and from production-optimal distribution are selected, regardless of how property rights are divided. Further, the Coase Theorem asserts that when property rights are involved, parties naturally gravitate toward the most efficient and mutually beneficial outcome.
One is certain that Atif Mian has also done a close analysis of the answers to the two questions he had posed that apply as well to Pakistan and reached the same conclusion that he had done following his comparative study of the answers that he mentioned in some detail with regard to China and Saudi Arabia.
Indeed, if one were to go through the history of efforts that successive governments in Pakistan, at least since the Ayub regime, had expended in controlling/elimination of corruption in the country one would not come to any conclusion other than the one reached by Atif Mian.
Had all these successive regimes been competent enough the state capture by elite would have been broken decades ago and people of Pakistan would have been living in an atmosphere free from the wasteful and corrupt grip of feudal aristocracy, rent seeking big business, incompetent civil-military bureaucracy and corrupt politicians.
Successive incompetent governments in Pakistan having failed miserably to deliver on governance have been seen to have passed the blame on the alleged corruption of previous regimes or on the opposition of the day. But having failed to prove these allegations in the court of law because of the chronic incompetence of our evidence gathering agencies and also that of the prosecution personnel these incompetent governments have without fail conducted media trial of their opponents with a vengeance.
This has been the practice of successive governments since the Ayub regime. His successors, especially General Zia, Nawaz Sharif during his three stints as PM and Musharraf have used media trials to defame their opponents to cover up their own failures in delivering on governance.
This practice has continued to date. Even today, the current government - a coalition led by the PTI - is using the same tactics while covering up its failures to deliver on governance. On a daily basis, stories of exotic corruption cases of leaders of the opposition parties are leaked to selected media houses. Following the round -the- clock dissemination of these leaked stories by these media houses in their news bulletins as well as in their prime time talk-shows, responsible federal and provincial ministers hold press conferences focusing more elaborately on the same allegations.
Clearly, it is the incompetence at the highest level of governance in Pakistan that has given rise to the corruption of elite that Dr. Hafiz Pasha mentions in his recent book "Growth and inequality in Pakistan - Agenda for reform":
"The feudal class - 13438 large land owners, representing only 0.2 percent of the total population of farmers who own over 11 percent of farm area with average landholding of 435 acres - enjoys numerous privileges including a very low income tax, extremely small water charges, input subsidies, high procurement and support prices and low electricity charges on tube wells. The solutions are obvious, including the levy of the AIT at the same rate as non-agricultural income and pricing of output at world prices and inputs at their cost or a subsidy in the case of fertilizer. This faces formidable opposition because of the strong representation of the feudal class in the Assemblies.
"The military has diversified its role to areas which do not have a link with the defense of the country. Today, the Army is the owner of the biggest conglomerate of housing societies for the upper income groups and of companies producing a variety of goods and services. The Fauji Foundation and the Army Welfare Trust have assets of Rs. 382 billion and net profit of over Rs. 30 billion. The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court has advised that the Army ought to be only involved in low cost housing for the common soldier. Also, the various tax privileges, like the exemption from sales tax in Cantonment Areas, need to be withdrawn.
"Multinational companies in Pakistan generally operate behind high tariff walls, set up to attract them. The best example is that of foreign companies assembling and selling automobiles. In addition, there is no vigilance over transfer pricing, especially by pharmaceutical companies. The basic principle that ought to be followed is that the difference in treatment of foreign and local companies should not be too large.
"Urban real estate developers and owners also enjoy the benefits of very low taxation including hugely under-assessed values of rents and capital value for determination of tax liabilities. Influential property developers have either had vast tracts of land allotted illegally or new development of housing schemes at the urban periphery has been kept outside the tax net because of the lack of extension of metropolitan boundaries.
"MNAs/MPAs have been able to legislate generous increases in emoluments for themselves. For example, the annual cost of the National Assembly has more than doubled since 2012-13. A very unusual and unacceptable practice is the allocation of development funds to MNAs/MPAs, which provides scope for big leakage of funds.
"Senior bureaucrats skillfully perpetuate and enhance their salaries, pensions and other privileges virtually on an annual basis. Benefits which have been monetized are subject to very low tax rates or exempt. Recently, a huge tax break has been given to salaried tax payers. Senior officers are also given plots in Islamabad at nominal prices."