Pakistan as a superpower?

[Energon]

I think the analysis provided in the OP is pretty good. There are many issues that stand in Pakistan's way in order to become a credible power.
1. Stability. It takes years to stabilize a nation and Pakistan unfortunately has been unable to sustain long term stability and growth for quite a few decades.

2. Violence and Fractionalism. Granted almost every developing nation suffers from this, Pakistan's problems with religious and ethnic fractionalism are far more pathological on account of a multitude of reasons. For south asian states that have aspirations of becoming global powers (India being the best example), attracting sustained foreign investments in a vast array of areas is the only feasible way to achieve their goals since the area is devoid of vast amounts of highly desirable natural resources such as petroleum to change the nation's fortune overnight like in the case of the GCC oil rich nations. Given the issues Pakistan faces in terms of stability and violence, it will be practically impossible to get copious sums of foreign investments unless they pertain to the immediate needs of the lender nations such as in the case of the USA and China.

3. Rental State. Pakistan HAS to find a way to get away from the clutches of beneficiary states who have since the conception of Pakistan been using it as a pawn to further their own interests. In the future, Pakistan should aim to have more than one or two investor nations thereby keeping hedging their bets and ensuring balance of power.

4. Credibility. Over the past decade and a half, many events have occurred that have negatively impacted Pakistan's credibility which in turn will keep potential investors and trading partners away in the near future. Links to terrorism, Kargil debacle, illicit nuclear trade, taliban resurgence through NWFP.

 

[aryan2007]

Aryan,

I think you are misunderstanding the references to matching or exceeding Indian growth - no one is suggesting that the Pakistani economy is going to leapfrog the Indian economy in actual size - the references are to growth rates and PPP.

Well this is what I acknowledged in my Post..

anyways from what is commonly observed smaller countries usually have higher per capita indicators. countries with large populations usually have higher gdps.. Pakistan is not small by any stretch of imagination...nor has a tiny population... but Pakistan can exceed India but as a collective nation Pakistan will always be in India's shadow.. + PPP will always be a big factor


I had raise objections to several points like
a. posting same growth rate for both nations.
b. Pakistan posting faster growth than India because of less problems
c. Pakistan has already surpassed India in the past and will so in the future..
d. What are the merits of being developed and/or being a superpower...

The argument is that you don't have to be a billion plus nation to actually make your presence felt, and people have argued that Japan and Germany could arguable be considered examples of nations with a tremendous potential for achieving "superpower" status.

Well japan and Germany are excellent examples of industrialized nations..
Germany actually exports more than CHina... yes you read it right...
These countries economies are dependent on exports.. if foreign demand dries up for whatever reason they will crash.. whereas US, China are not only exporting countries but have a big domestic market as well,,,
Superpower is someone not dependent on external influences...

Though you are somewhat right.. in your post..

Also, with India's larger economy come the headaches of managing and providing for a billion plus people - not an easy task, but not an impossible one either.

I agree.. but in our population lies India's advantage.. China's population's median age is touching middle age whereas ours is still young... and we have educated english speaking young populace ready to conquer the world.. India Gandhi had made a veiled prediction about our dominance..

""God forbid that India should ever take to industrialism after the manner of the west... keeping the world in chains. If our nation took to similar economic exploitation, it would strip the world bare like locusts.""

Pakistan does not have to match the Indian economy dollar for dollar. Our economic size will be reflective of our country's size.

Size of the economy is not related to Country's size but on PPP and pop.. and wealth distribution and level of industrialization etc... though eventually a more dominant power will be the one with bigger absolute and relative values..

some more stats to ponder on...
China's GDP PPP is approx 10tn$ and per capita income therefore is 7000$ pop.. 1.4
India's GDP PPP is approx 5tn$ and per capita income is 4200$ pop is 1.2bn
Pakistan's GDP PPP is approx 550bn$ pci is 3600$ pop is .15bn
but China's wealth dist. is world's worst.. therefore the poorest chinese is poorer than any of India's or Pakistan's and/or China has a relatively small middle class...

 

[roadrunner]

Where did you get that China has the world's worst income distribution. I very much doubt China's poor are much worse off than India's poor. You have a link presumably?

Also, your "Indians out to conquer the world with English" is a joke. Speaking English will only get you as far as call centres. If call centres are your target, you'll succeed, but never beat China.

 

[aryan2007]

Where did you get that China has the world's worst income distribution. I very much doubt China's poor are much worse off than India's poor. You have a link presumably?

Didn't you see the and/or...


Of course

this is 2004

After 50 years of Communism China now has the biggest divide between urban rich and rural poor in the world, according to the government's own researchers.
China rich-poor gap is world's worst - Telegraph

this is 2007
and acc. to ADB it has worsened as their Gini coefficient has increased and breached the warning levels..
The indicators, mainly concerning inequality in Asia, showed that the rich are getting richer and the poor getting poorer in this region.
ADB report: China's wealth divide yawning with Gini coefficient reaches 47.3

Also, your "Indians out to conquer the world with English" is a joke.

Sorry yaar we will conquer the world with Hindi

Speaking English will only get you as far as call centres. If call centres are your target, you'll succeed, but never beat China.

""and we have educated english speaking young populace ready to conquer the world.."
It provides us an edge in business.. what is the language of commerce?? + we are educated.. duh...

Have you seen the success of Indians abroad and now domestically???

We have a young populace..
we can speak english..
we are educated..
we are intelligent..
we are motivated..
The only problem is Our govt is stupid..

People ready, not the state
People ready, not the state - livemint

 

[Tiki Tam Tam]

Where did you get that China has the world's worst income distribution. I very much doubt China's poor are much worse off than India's poor. You have a link presumably?

Also, your "Indians out to conquer the world with English" is a joke. Speaking English will only get you as far as call centres. If call centres are your target, you'll succeed, but never beat China.

Knowing English allows smoother and more fruitful interaction in the power and intellectual centres of the world and not only the call centres!

In the end, the English knowing country benefits all round!