We want Growing pakistan........

In Pakistan, things move at a leisurely South Asian pace. We missed our goals to eradicate polio recently because we, a nuclear nation, could not sustain electricity across the country long enough to refrigerate the vaccines. Garbage disposal is a non-existent concept, and plush neighborhoods in Karachi boast towers of rubbish piled on street corners and alleyways. Prisons and police cells are full of prisoners awaiting trials, and our justice system, despite the reinstatement of Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, leaves a lot to be desired in terms of meting out free and fair access to justice.

fatima_bhutto_0Never mind that Pakistan’s Constitution stipulates that no law
contrary to Islam can be passed in the land. The no-goodnik president, who the Wall Street Journal called a “Category 5 disaster,”
went ahead and unilaterally – without a vote granted to the citizens
of Swat – imposed shariah. Meanwhile, President Obama is set to meet
with President Zardari (who locals have now taken to calling
President Ghadari or “traitor” in Urdu) in 10 days’ time. There is, I
would imagine, much to discuss.

The most important question that will come from Pakistan, however, is a familiar one: Can we have some more please? Money, that is, not
“Taliban”. It may surprise some Americans that even in the midst of
this recession, billions of their tax dollars are given directly to
the thievery corporation that is Pakistan’s Government, never to be
seen again. George Bush gave Pakistan a whopping $ 10 billion to fight terror, money that seems to have gone down the drain – or rather, into some pretty deep pockets. And it’s not just the U.S. – last week, international donors from 30 countries met in Tokyo and pledged $ 5 billion to Pakistan to “fight terror.” The IMF has given the country $ 7.6 billion in a bailout deal that boggles the mind. Saudi Arabia has generously pledged $ 700 million over the next four years, and the less-generous European Union an additional $ 640 million over the same period. And then there is Obama’s promise of $ 1.5 billion a year, dependent, the White House says, on results.

It’s phenomenally silly to give that kind of money to a President who, before becoming [PPP] President, was facing corruption cases in Switzerland, Spain and England. Zardari and his wife, the late PM Benazir Bhutto, are estimated to have stolen upwards of $ 3 billion from the Pakistani Treasury – a figure Zardari doesn’t seem desperate to disprove, he placed his personal assets before becoming President at over $ 1 billion.

It’s also dangerous. No amount of money, especially in the hands of a
famously corrupt government, is going to help Pakistan stave off terror, especially when said [PPP] government seems more than willing to capitulate to the militants they are supposed to be using that money to save the world from. Since 2001, Pakistan has been a country in decline. We suffer a suicide-bombing rate that surpasses Iraq’s.

The billions of dollars we have received have not made Pakistan safer, they haven’t made our neighbors safer and they have done nothing in the way of eradicating terror.

The “Taliban” and their ilk, on the other hand, are able to seat
themselves in towns and villages across Pakistan without much
difficulty largely because they do not come empty-handed. In a country that has a literacy rate of around 30 percent, the Islamists set up madrassas and educate local children for free. In districts where government hospitals are not fit for animals, they set up medical camps – in fact, they have been doing medical relief work since the 2005 earthquake hit northern Pakistan. Where there is no electricity, because the local government officials have placed their friends and relatives in charge of local electrical plants, the Islamists bring generators. In short, they fill a vacuum that the state, through political negligence and gross graft, has created. That’s the frightening truth. -