Grave challenges ahead!
Published: January 11, 2011
Farooq Hameed Khan
As the world celebrated the dawn of 2011 with hopes and prayers for peace and prosperity, Pakistanis were greeted with a barrage of lethal drone missiles that killed around two dozen innocent people, a back-breaking 9 percent POL price-hike, and heavy energy outages. The overall gloom and despair deepened with the assassination of the Punjab Governor by one of his elite security men few days later.
Besides this, the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) announcement to withhold the $3.6 billion instalment on New Year’s Eve raised fears that the already impoverished and demoralised Pakistani nation could be heading towards economic and security upheavals in 2011. Thus, its well timed economic drone attack has raised a few questions. Does the US - through the IMF - intend to exploit the economic weapon to force Pakistan’s civil and military leadership to follow its dictates in North Waziristan? And what has Pakistan gained from its overdependence on the IMF, since the PPP-led government came to power in 2008? Unfortunately, even after consuming over $15 billion in IMF loans since 2008, the economy remains in shambles, poverty levels beyond 40 percent and national sovereignty badly compromised. Thanks to a corrupt and inefficient government that borrows more loans to repay the previous ones, the country sinks further into a quagmire of debt.
In their Washington Post article of December 31, 2010, Karin Brulliard and Karen DeYoung referred to General Kayani’s reported remarks in an interview with senior Pakistani journalists. It states: “Calling Pakistan America’s ‘most bullied ally’, Kayani said that the ‘real aim of US strategy is to de-nuclearise Pakistan’.” If one were to link these noteworthy comments with the US/IMF efforts to push Pakistan towards an economic crunch, the grand Indo-US design to destabilise Pakistan present a formidable challenge to its security and integrity in 2011.
On the blasphemy law issue, the PPP must blame its ultra liberals for provoking the deep turmoil and nationwide protests that were absolutely uncalled for, and avoidable in these precarious times. In his enthusiasm to apparently appease the West, the late Governor Taseer, by his somewhat inappropriate statements played with the sensitivities of the common public and earned its wrath. It not only served to further polarise the society on a settled issue, but also added to the country’s domestic instability and invite renewed international focus on religious intolerance in our society.
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Grave challenges ahead!
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