Pakistan is on the verge of bankruptcy, it continues to be poverty ridden with more than 30 percent below the poverty line, heavily populated, no foreign investment, internal disputes and continuous tensions with neighboring India. Its economic outlook continues to be bleak.
Midnight of August 14, 1947 there were celebrations galore in the newly born Islamic republic of Pakistan. It is 53 years since that fateful day when the subcontinent was divided into India and Pakistan, based on the two-nation theory by the then British government. India got its independence on the next midnight i.e.August 15, 1947. Since then both, the nations had their trails and tribulations.
Now, Pakistan is on the verge of bankruptcy, it continues to be poverty ridden with more than 30 percent below the poverty line, heavily populated, no foreign investment, internal disputes and continuous tensions with neighboring India. Its economic outlook continues to be bleak. It has an estimated $21 bn in foreign debt. 70 percent of its budget goes to the military. Foreign loans and grants provide approximately 25 percent of government revenue, but debt service obligations total nearly 50 percent of government expenditure and foreign exchange reserves hover at roughly $1 bn, its economic prospects remain uncertain; too little has changed in the last 54 years. There is resentment against the dominance of the Punjabis from Sindhis and Baluchis.
Pakistan has been vacillating between democracy and dictatorship since its existence. Its founder Mohammed Ali Jinnah had favored a pluralistic democracy, but today it finds itself as a theocratic state. Pakistan was unfortunate in that a sincere and patriotic ruler never ruled it. Whoever was at the helm did the maximum damage by their selfish, faulty and narrow-minded policies. The return to democracy is now a distant dream for Pakistan as there is no such thing as a political culture that can support democracy. The society is still feudal and is dominated by a few groups who will never let go their stranglehold on the society.
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