On Wednesday 19 Mar 2008 6:19:57 pm Tarun Dua wrote: > On 3/19/08, ss <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > There is some financial fiction in one or the other. Apart from a > > suggestion to me that the Pakistan Army may have paid Dalrymple to speak > > of "corrupt Pakistani politicians" with not a chirp about the Pakistani > > army itself which has a huge role to play in Pakistan's current cheerful > > situation. That is typical Pakistani army apologist language and it looks > > like Dalrymple may have joined a long list of Western journalists who > > have been "magically convinced" to speak "Pearls" on behalf of the > > Pakistan army. > > I remember reading a lot of foriegn agency news items on how wonderful > has life been in Pakistan under the professional government supported > by military and how press has been more free, than under democratic > governments. There is no way to look at the alternate timeline though. > > However the malls and highways constructed are not going away ? > -Tarun
News about Pakistan follows such a typical pattern that I tend to wait for the next news byte before believing or discarding the previous one. Now I shall wait for one more news item to contradict this one.. http://www.brecorder.com/index.php?id=720130&currPageNo=1&query=&search=&term=&supDate= resident's visit: China to announce $500 million support ARIF RANA ISLAMABAD (April 07 2008): China has once again come up to Pakistan's expectations to prove itself as Islamabad's time-tested friend by agreeing to place $500 million to support balance of payments. Formal announcement is expected to be made during President Pervez Musharraf's visit scheduled for April 10-15 to China. < snip > It is ironical that Pakistan today stands at a crossroads as far as its financial health is concerned. In total contrast to economic wizards like former Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and former Finance Minister Dr Salman Shah's claim of making Pakistan strong economically to absorb major shocks it is begging for help from close friends just to tide over the current account deficit. Its economic situation is so bad that the new government is facing it difficult to handle even day-to-day affairs. Pakistan's correct financial strength could be gauged easily from its weakening currency. Pak rupee is depreciating against an ever weakening dollar. Critics of Shaukat Aziz/Salman Shah say there was no major investment in manufacturing sector for job creation last eight years. Delays in sanctioning public as well as private sector power projects were covered with excuses of 15 percent rise in demand for power as against six percent forecast. And, expansion of cellular network and unprecedented sales of mobile phones became the touchstone for economic progress. shiv
