Reply With QuoteGood to hear that-maybe this will help them wake up to the situation in their own land.
Anti-terror war has paralysed Pakistan economy, US told
President Asif Ali Zardari said on Friday that the US-led war against terrorism in the region and the consequent violence in Pakistan had almost paralysed the country’ economy.
The president was talking to a US delegation led by the Special Envoy for Pakistan and Afghanistan, Richard Holbrooke. US Ambassador Anne W. Patterson was also present.
The president said that Pakistan’s industrial growth and export potential had been severely restricted — first, because the region was a theatre of war against a rival ideology in the past, and second, because of rising militancy in the country as a consequence of the first.
According a handout, Mr Zardari criticised new US measures for screening Pakistanis at airports and said the policy had triggered a “negative social and political impact” in Pakistan.
According to the president’s press secretary Taimoor Azmat Usman, Mr Zardari told the American delegation that the policy had “generated disappointing and damaging response” in Pakistan. “These (screening) procedures are no doubt derogatory for the people of Pakistan,” he added.
Expressing his “personal concern” over the new screening policy, Mr Holbrooke assured the president that the decision would be reviewed soon.
He said the policy had been framed by the Homeland Security Department, but it would “come under a review shortly”.
Issues relating to drone attacks, war against militancy, reconstruction opportunity zones in Fata, Coalition Support Fund arrears and economic assistance also came under discussion.
The president pointed that drone strikes had undermined the consensus against the war on militancy. He reiterated his government’s demand for transfer of drone technology to Pakistan.
The delegation informed the president that the US administration was clearing $349 million left over from 2008 dues. In addition, $1.4 billion in dues of 2009 are going through accounting process and will be released shortly. This should clear all dues under the Coalition Support Fund, they added.
Mr Zardari praised US commitment to Pakistan’s stability, security and prosperity. “It must be based on mutual respect and trust. Democratic stability in Pakistan is contingent upon advancement of our development agenda in which the US and other industrialised countries can play a great role.”
According to the president’s spokesman Farhatullah Babar, Mr Zardari also called for greater access to US and European markets and told the delegation that economic cost of the war against terror had touched a staggering $35 billion.
“Keeping in view the cumulative cost of the war on terror and militancy, Pakistan needs a Marshall Plan-like lifeline to overcome its economic problems and international community must come forward. The Friends of Democratic Pakistan must translate their pledges of economic and financial support to Pakistan into reality,” the president was reported to have told the delegation.
WTFMr Zardari also sought “preferential treatment” for Pakistani goods because it was in a state of war on behalf of the international community. He said that although US laws linked tariff regime to the level of development of the exporting country, Pakistan should be exempted because of its special circumstances resulting from the war on terror.
The US officials said they understood the arguments, but such matters needed time-consuming legislation. “The process has already begun.”
The US, they added, was also expediting the legislative process for creating reconstruction opportunity zones and some kind of preferential tariff regime for goods from Pakistan.
The president was assisted by Punjab Governor Salman Taseer, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Malik Hammad, President’s Secretary General Salman Farooqui and Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir.
http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/...security-ss-03
Good to hear that-maybe this will help them wake up to the situation in their own land.
Ha...he just begs more money from the US.
this coming from the man known as Mr 10%.....for those who are not aware, any foreign aid money that goes to Pakistan, 10% of that goes directly into Zardari's pocket.....this guy is a expert at begging. Strict conditions need to be enforced on any monies.
Last edited by 171KUL; 01-19-2010 at 05:50 PM. Reason: typo
Didnt pakistani economy grew 2 percent last year and is expected to grow 3.5 percent this year so how is pakistani economy paralysed if it is growing?
Just because a nation has economic growth doesn't mean it will be immune from internal strife.Originally Posted by ASHISH67
If you have 2% economic growth, but 40% currency devaluation/consumer price inflation you are still going to potentially(or in this case likely) have a lot of very upset citizens.
Pakistan is in pretty deep financial doo doo(as is much of the world to a greater or lesser extent)........so economic bad news will magnify the internal/external terrorism/conflict quicksand Pakistan is currently stuck in.
Pakistan should somehow understand that the rest of the world has had it with their duplicity, double game, terrorism support and great-game idiocy. The military pretty much runs the economy.. and they have played the Americans for fools for decades. Segments of the Pak military and ISI are behind the terrorism in Afghanistan and believe it or not, Pakistan. And they continue to try to whip-saw the US as they fooled GWB.
Pakistan is virtually isolated. That country is one step from being declared a terriorist state and having their ports blocaded and aid cut off. Still elements think they can scheme, plot, lie, steal, support killing people world wide and somehow be regarded as a country worthy of respect.
The information about the duplicty and support for the terrorists that is now coming out is irrefutable. The Pak military itself, not just the ISI must be fingered because they are behind the evil. I have many friends and acquaintances in Pakistan. It is a country that has captured my fantasies for a long long time. Now.. a pox on all. The lunatic press, the parnoid lowlanders, the killer pushtuns... all deserve each other all locked in a little box until the evil destroys itself. Count the Pakistan bodies that have stacked up... and ask the military and ISI... "why.." Why do you protect and support Mullah Omar, Osama bin Laudin, Hikkemullah Masud, and the killers of his ilK? Why do you hide them, give them arms and explosives, etc.?
I have little hope that Pakistan itself can right its sinking ship-of-state. Perhaps if some military supported Pushtun element committed an atrocity so horrible that it finally mobilizes the Siehks, etc., something could be salvaged. What that will be ... who knows. But what seems more likely is open war with NATO, India, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, et. al., being declared a terrorist state, banks frozen commerce stopped, ports shut... all well deserved. Shame.
IMHO Pakistan learned how to benefit from terror. If Pakistan gets everything he demands, in Pakistan's place i would do everything to make the terror stay around in this region for very long time.
x2
This is brilliantly put.
pakistan is still standing, maybe limping at the moment and i dont see it going down in the near future!
the people who are thr ruling class or who are running the country, very well know how to run it and survive the onslought of various kinds.
they will beg, borrow or steal to survive! remember thats how they built thier nukes....buy eating grass!
USA, China, KSA and other friends of pakistan wont let it go down the drain!
2 years a go one of the members here are hell bent into believing Pakistan will implode in less than 6 month, with iron hard belief that pakistan will never bring the war against taliban and positive determination that Indian army will be the one that destroy taliban to dust in afganistan.
im marking this page. today
you really see pak army crush taliban and clear its support and network?
if pak army cleans up taliban inside pakistan along with its support and material, that in turn will help west clean up taliban and AQ from afghanistan!
this aint gonna happen my friend! pakistan survives on these very talibans to get $$$ from its masters i mentioned in my reply aboves yours!
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