Earlier this year, a Moody’s Investor Service analyst said that contant attacks on the government were keeping investment out of Pakistan and harming the nation’s economy. Now, a new report by the World Bank reinforces this statement. In its Global Monitoring Report for 2010, the World Bank reports that “political uncertainty and fighting continue to disrupt economic activity.”
Political uncertainty and fighting continue to disrupt economic activity in Pakistan while other South Asian nations are expected to emerge stronger from the current global crisis, says a World Bank report.
In its Global Monitoring Report for 2010, the bank places Pakistan among the conflict-affected countries where “political uncertainty and fighting continue to disrupt economic activity”.
The only two other South Asian nations in this category are Afghanistan and Nepal. While the situation in Afghanistan is worse than in Pakistan, the bank observes that Nepal is beginning to show signs of improvement.
When all parties were able to come together in unity to pass the much praised 18th Amendment, many hoped for a turning point in Pakistan’s tradition of murder-suicide politics. To great disappointment, we have watched as anti-government elements have quickly changed their tunes and attacked the government and its democratization measures.
These attacks are clearly made with the short-term goal of destabilizing the present government in hopes that these elements can seize power. But what they do not realize is that, even if they think that their party would make a better government than the present one, they are actually destroying the country in order to take it over.
In order to prevent the present government from being seen as a success, anti-Zardari people are actually willing to force the government to fail. Rather than acting as an honest opposition, these elements are willing to sacrifice the well-being of the Pakistani people.
But you don’t have to take my word for it. Every economic body in the world is telling us the same.
