Tuesday, July 09, 2019

Will Pakistan have to beg from Bangladesh?

Bangladesh, "which is the world's second largest garment exporter, has seen the value of its overseas sales rise to a record $3.81 billion in May, coinciding with Trump boosting tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods to 25% from 10%." "For Bangladesh, which aims to double total exports to $72 billion by 2024, snaring part of the $41 billion of clothing business that goes to China will provide a fillip to an economy that the Asian Development Bank forecasts will expand a record 8% for the next two years." Bangladesh and Pakistan are engaged in a tit-for-tat diplomatic quarrel "since 2013 when Dhaka decided to hang several of the 1971 war criminals". "Five top collaborators of the Pakistani army, four being leaders of fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami which opposed the country's 1971 independence from Pakistan, have so far been executed after their trial in Bangladesh's International Crimes Tribunal." Bangladesh has cut its fertility rate to 2.1 from 6.6 in 1960, while Pakistan's fertility rate is 3.65 per woman. "Even if the birth rate slows, some experts estimate that Pakistan's population could double again by the middle of the century, putting catastrophic pressures on water and sanitation systems, swamping health and education services, and leaving tens of millions of people jobless -- prime recruits for criminal networks and violent Islamist groups." "Bangladesh ran very successful vaccination programs", while "Pakistan is one of the only three countries, along with Afghanistan and Nigeria, that suffers from epidemic polio", because vaccinators are regularly shot dead. Since 2006, "Bangladesh's annual gross domestic product (GDP) growth has exceeded Pakistan's by roughly 2.5 percentage points per year" so that it will "overtake Pakistan in terms of per capita GDP in 2020, even with a correction for purchasing power parity". While Bangladesh economy is booming Pakistan had to approach the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a humiliating bailout. "Last week, the IMF approved the 13th bailout package for Pakistan since the late 1980s." Last month, Pakistan's rupee plunged to "a record low of Rs 162 against one dollar". It may fall to 200 to the dollar. Pakistan "created terrorist groups to be a tool" to be used against India, said former CIA acting director Michael Morell. So Barack Obama sold F16s to Pakistan knowing it to be a terrorist state. "There was a time when Muslims went to the UK and came back 'anglicised', speaking English in an accent unfamiliar in Pakistan. Today, they return transformed into what a medieval Muslim man would have looked like -- bearded and clad midway between Saudi Arabia and India, a total stranger to spoken English," wrote Khaled Ahmed. Another few years, and Pakistan prime minister may have to beg a woman prime minister for a loan. What a fall!

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