Pakistan has been “taking it” from all sides recently, perhaps some relief is in order. The Dawn, the internationally well-respected daily newspaper in Karachi, gave the opinion spotlight to an article arguing that the notion of “an economic crisis in Pakistan” was at best overblown and at worst malicious. Avers Pakistani political economist S. Akbar Zaidi: “Pakistan’s economy is not in a crisis, nor on the verge of one. It has serious problems, but a crisis is a much deeper affliction.
Greece’s economy is in a crisis, Britain’s or America’s is not. The latter two are struggling with high and growing unemployment, low growth, high debt — just like Pakistan, but of course at a different level and of a much different nature — but this is not a crisis.”(Link to The Dawn Article) Others might beg to differ, as if Zaidi is asking the world to have a positive attitude about a rocking ship that continues to stay afloat above all odds. Though even Mr. Zaidi concludes his analysis with this: “The truth is, really, we don’t know enough.” That’s one judgment that few who are sincerely concerned with Pakistan’s fate would quarrel with.
