Rawalpindi, Pakistan: People queue to get free food from a restaurant(Photo from The Guardian)
Pakistan’s Wounded Sovereignty -- The Economist
Pakistan needs outside help to pay its bills and quell an insurgency. But will it thank or resent its benefactors?
THE earthquake that struck the province of Baluchistan on October 29th, killing over 150 people, is only the latest calamity to befall Pakistan. The country's economy is threatened with bankruptcy, even as its internal security is haunted by growing militancy.
Without foreign help, Pakistan won't be able to afford its imports, repay its debts, or quell the insurgents encamped within its borders. Thanks to protracted power cuts, it cannot even keep the lights on in its towns and villages. It is not, in other words, a state in full command of itself. And yet despite these dispiriting facts, or perhaps because of them, Pakistan is acutely sensitive to any infringement of its sovereignty. Those outside powers in a position to help it, from the International Monetary Fund to the American military, are as likely to offend its pride as to earn its gratitude.
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My Comment: Pakistan has an incredibly long history with a culture that is thousands of years old. But politically it is still a child. Because of this dichotomy, their conflict with us comes from a cultural belief in their superiority but a realization that they have failed politically and economically .... and as such must now go cap in hand to the IMF in Washington. For a proud people this is humiliating.
Pakistan will go to the IMF .... and they will get their emergency funding. But this will not solve its political and economic problems. In the long run, Pakistan has all the workings of becoming a large and unsuccessful failed state.