Pakistan, Aug. 13 -- Among the laptops, skills programmes and employment initiatives announced on International Youth Day, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif offered an unsparing diagnosis. Pakistan, he conceded, remains "far" from the social welfare state envisaged at its creation. He then described the country as many families already experience it: one Pakistan sends children from expensive schools to leading universities, and another leaves millions struggling for even basic education. The candour is welcome because economic stabilisation has brought Islamabad to the harder stage of recovery-deciding how much of it eventually reaches the household.

GDP expanded by 3.7 per cent last year, its strongest performance in four years, though rap...