counting the cost of a nation’s obsession
Pakistan, it is reported is inching towards a payment crisis.
Clock ticks down on Pakistan’s payments crisis
By Simon Cameron-Moore | Reuters | Fri Oct 17, 2008 7:31pm IST
ISLAMABAD, Oct 17 (Reuters) – Pakistan moved closer to a balance of payments crisis on Friday, as the rupee slumped to a record low after the central bank reported it had barely enough foreign currency to cover six weeks of imports.
HOW MUCH FOREIGN CURRENCY DOES PAKISTAN HAVE?
As of Oct. 11, Pakistan’s foreign currency reserves totalled $7.75 billion, having fallen $570 million in a week. Critically, the central bank’s share of this has fallen to $4.34 billion, while commercial banks held $3.41 billion. The News daily said on Friday central bank reserves had slid to just under $4 billion as of Oct. 16 and out of that $1.5 billion had been consumed by currency forward booking liabilities.HOW LONG CAN PAKISTAN GO ON BEFORE IT RUNS OUT OF DOLLARS?
The data shows the central bank has barely enough foreign currency to cover six weeks of imports. Including commercial bank reserves, it has two months’ cover.
It is all too easy to lay the blame on the global financial meltdown.
A nation born with a million hopes has in 61 years been reduced to beg,
It has received billions of dollars in aid over the years,
Money that could be better spent on building the infrastructure of a new nation.
then how and why did it all go wrong?
The answer is simple.
Pakistan is a nation that has been driven by one obsession, one greed, one motive –
Kashmir
August 1947: Birth of Pakistan as a sovereign state.
October 1947: On the 22nd Pakistan launched a full-scale invasion of Jammu and Kashmir, though intrusions had begun almost immediately following the partition of India on August 15th.
In “RAIDERS IN KASHMIR”, Major General Akbar Khan writes,
“We had assumed that Kashmir would naturally join Pakistan …
Our own safety and welfare also demanded that the State should not go over to India .. Pakistan’s military security would be seriously jeopardised if Indian troops came to be stationed along Kashmir’s western border.“…Ultimately, I wrote out a plan under the title of “Armed Revolt inside Kashmir”. As open interference or aggression by Pakistan was obviously undesirable, it was proposed that our efforts should be concentrated upon strengthening the Kashmiris themselves internally—and at the same time taking steps to prevent the arrival of armed civilian or military assistance from India into Kashmir…
That is exactly what happened.
In their greed to take over Kashmir, they got sucked into a war with India.
As a newborn nation, instead of trying to create a good relation with neighbour India,
they had created a perpetual “enemy”.
Every pakistani government in power, both military and civilian, has preached India is their enemy,
created and magnified a paranoia that India would destroy Pakistan.
In sixty years, there has been three major wars, one minor war and
numerous armed skirmishes between the two states.
To fight wars a nation needs an army, artillary, guns and armoured vehicles
and finally missiles and now nuclear bombs.
It costs money, billions and billions of dollars.
How could Pakistan have acquire that much money or the technology?
More importantly, what happened to the fortune poured into the country?
The dollars had come as “aids” from US and oil rich islamic states.
The dollars also poured in to fund America’s proxy war against the soviets in Afghanistan.
The Kashmir Jihad:
The aid did not reach those who needed it,
most of it was siphoned off to continue the conflict, to train and aid terrorist incursions in Kashmir.
The Pakistan Army, and their intelligence service ISI were the US ally in the war in Afghanistan,
they trained the mujahideen, and supported the Talibans, they also trained terrorists for Kashmir.
America turned a deliberate blind eye to what they were creating in Kashmir.
It is not a coincidence that in 1989 the Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan and almost immediately the scale of incursions in Kashmir increased.
Nuclear technology:
Some of the nuclear technology was stolen from Netherland’s gas centrifuge factory.
But most of the nuclear technology came from China.
There are enough documents to prove the Americans were aware of China’s nuclear proliferation.
It is entirely possible that Pakistan handed over tracts of Kashmir to China, as a payment for China’s assistance with nuclear technology as far back as 1963. It is almost certain that Pakistan’s missile technology came from North Korea in exchange for nuclear knowhow.
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It was General Musharraf, confident of his unlimited US support launched the war in Kargil.
He, (his then PM Sharif has claimed), was solely responsible for the Kargil attacks.
And he boasted he would hoist the flag of Pakistan atop the Srinagar Assembly.
He lost the war, but not his obsession to win Kashmir.
Nawaz Sharif was removed from power and he took over power.
But all plans to start another war, to his dismay, crumbled with the twin towers on September 11.
He became a reluctant, double dealing ally of the US war on terror.
He successfully fooled the US government to extract $10 billion in aid.
Money that should have been better spent on building the economy.
October 2008: Pakistan has reserves worth six weeks imports.
And if the world doesn’t pour in more alms, if America doesn’t, China will. Perhaps some more of Kashmir will be handed over to the chinese as payback.
To simply pour in more aid will only perpetuate the problem that is Pakistan today.
Instead of begging, Pakistan should be made to ‘earn’ the money they need to survive.
Like others in debt, to balance their books Pakistan has to trade or sell off their assets.
1. Their ill-gotten nuclear arsenal is a threat to the entire world, they should be made to give up their nuclear weapons in exchange for any financial aid.
2. They should also be made to comply with the UN resolution, 47 (1948) RESOLUTION OF 21ST April 1948 [S 726] and withdraw from Kashmir.
3. And finally, to open their borders to allow the real fight against terror to proceed.
For 60 years,
Pakistan has relied on the world’s charity to fund their wars against India and terrorism in Kashmir.
It is time Pakistan is taught to take responsibilities of their own future and welfare,
to give back to the world something in return,
peace and security.
America
Pakistan
Economy
China
terrorism
Kashmir
