I wish we were overtaking them in terms of economic power. Adding more and more nuclear weapons wont add much value to our deterrence force against India. It will add teeth but certainly no value as we reached the required amount of deterrence quite a while ago. Nuclear weapons are expensive to make and even more costly to maintain. This money would be much better spent on infrastructure, health and education.
I agree
Unless Pakistan achieves economic self sufficiency, its sovereignty will be violated by the US as Pakistan's political leaders are addicted to US aid.
Sir, Pakistan lacks those leaders who may guide it in the right direction. Even if you want a stronger military, you need a strong economy which may support its military expanses? Even if you want to give subcidies to your poor, you first have to ensure a level of earning through growth and then you may have subcidies? I mean, without a strong economy, you can’t dream neither for a strong military nor for helping poor of your country also. more the middle class you may make, more they will pay taxes and do investments which will help you make a strong nation. Even if Qatar is the richest country of the world, it’s the 600mil middle class of China why China is now an equally powerful/ strong nation as US right now
From here, IMF projected world’s growth rate at 3.5% for the year 2012, which would mean on average 1% to 1.5% growth rate for the developed economies and 5% to 6% for developing economies, resulting overall growth rate of the world at around 3.5% in 2012. then you would ask yourself, will Pakistan fall in the expected ‘average’ growth rate of the developing countries, 5% to 6%, for the year 2012? From my side I may say, as we know that average growth rate of Pakistan was around 2.5% to 3% during last 5 years, around 3.0% in 2011 also, then Pakistan may hardly first try to touch a growth rate of 4% this year and then plan for the next
The IMF revised world economic growth for 2012 to 3.5%, up from its previous forecast of 3.3%.
BBC News - IMF sees 'optimism return' as faster growth predicted
I was in school that time and India adopted path of ASEAN+China since 1990 and liberalized its economy in the same way as ASEAN+China did in 70s, little late but they woke up. And since then, years passed when I used to read only economic sections and international politics sections pages of newspapers. I had seen a high of ASEAN nations in mid 90s and then they reached a low by early 2000s due to economic fall since late 90s/ 1998. Asian tiger like Thailand could reach its per capita income of 1997 again by 2006 only and it was said in the newspapers that China had then taken a big part of export business of ASEAN+India which didn’t let the ASEAN get the status like Japan/ Korea/ Taiwan/ HongKong/ Singapore type Asian countries. but still if you compare Thailand and China with Philipinnes, a christian background country which gets heavy remittances from West due to easy visa for their people to enter US/ West, then we find per capita income on PPP of Thailand and China at around 2.5 times and 2.0 times respectively to Philipinnes. Philipinnes which is also categorized as NICs due to enough technological help from West, located in the same ASEAN region like Thailand and of the same race but different religious background, but living standard of Philipinnes is much poorer than Thailand?
List of countries by GDP (PPP) per capita - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Philipinnes is of the same size country like Pakistan, Nigeria, Bangladesh which also receive hefthy remittances, around $10bil each year. But due to full technological support to Philipinnes and easy Western visas to 'low qualified' Philipo people, Philipinnes receives $20bil+ remittance every year but still its per capita income is hardly 40% to Thailand, the neighbouring country of Philipinnes, of same race but different religious background.
here, would I mention why Pakistan also had almost same type of growth rate like Philipinnes during last 5 years? Here a bottomline truth is, dependence on the remittances will take you to the path of destructions/ poverty only. Population of India and China is around 13 times and 14 times respectively than Philipinnes, country size of India and China is compared with the whole ASEAN but they receive hardly around $50bil remittances each through their 'highly qualified' migrants, as compare to $20bil+ of a small country Philipinnes, but growth rate of India and China was around 8% and 10% respectively during last 5 years, then it was because they adopted path of industrialization. And on the side of India, even if they had around 2% less growth rate than China during last 5 years then its also true that growth rate of India was derived through the internal demand while that of China mainly due to the external demand
The rankings, as categorized in the Migration And Remittances Factbook 2011, are as follows:
1.India - $55 billion
2.China - $51 billion
3.Mexico - $22.6 billion
4.Philippines - $21.3 billion
5.France - $15.9 billion
6.Germany - $11.6 billion
7.Bangladesh $11.1 billion
8.Belgium - $10.4 billion
9.Spain - $10.2 billion
10.Nigeria - $10 billion
6. Pakistan - $12.94 billion
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remittance#Top_recipient_countries
http://www.nigeriancuriosity.com/2010/11/nigeria-top-10-remittance-country-again.html
Therefore, I would propose that Pakistan’s leaders would guide their country on the path of China, Thailand, India for a prospor future. Going on the path of Philipinnes with higher remittances will only result in destruction of Pakistan, like how Pakistan’s economy is heavily dependent on the overseas remittances and aid. Pakistan doesn’t want aid but it needs to gain on trade side like Thailand/ China, or, Pakistan needs to learn from India also to have higher growth through internal demands only. Pakistan would adopt concept of ASEAN nations, that is, Pakistan needs to catch up with a similar size country like Thailand with higher per capita income even if it is not as big country like Indonesia. Don’t ask yourself why India, China, Indonesia are bigger countries/ economies but you would accept that Pakistan fall among the medium sized countries like Egypt, Nigeria, Argentina, Thailand, South Africa, Turkey etc. and from here, you may ask yourself, “why Turkey of population 100mil is categorized as a NICs and a ‘middle order’ country with per capita income of $15,000 on PPP but Pakistan of same size with enough natural resources isn’t among the countries like Turkey?” why can’t Pakistan try to beat India in terms of per capita income in the same same way like Thailand beat Indonesia and why can’t Pakistan accept that economies like India/ China/ Indonesia are too big to be compared on military expanses, while Pakistan also has its own nuclear strike but Turkey doesn't while Turkey is rated as a stronger/ more powerful nation than Britain? Why can’t Pakistan adopt the model of "Thailand + Turkey" and try to catch of with their per capita income and come in the category of NICs, say by 2025?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newly_industrialized_country#Current_NICs
average growth rate of Britain was hardly around 0.5% during last 5 years and developed countries can't have growth rates like developing economies and if Pakistan will go on the path of Turkey+Thailand, Pakistan will emerge as a stronger nation than Britain by 2025, similar to Turkey right now while Pakistan has its own nuclear strike