Pakistan hard-pressed by PRESSLER LAW
The fact that Pakistan has been under the sanctions of the Pressler Law since 1990 resulted in a gradual erosion of our conventional capabilities. India was able to draw on Russia, France and Israel for military hardware, as well as on
dual-use technology from the US, which has tended to favour India since the end of the cold war, visualizing it as a regional partner to contain Islamic fundamentalism, and as a logical counterweight to China. As if this was not enough of an advantage, India has enjoyed better economic growth, thanks to sensible planning and better management of the economy.
Therefore, since the mid-1990s, Pakistan has been downgraded in the western perspective as a state on the verge of "failure", while India is seen as an emerging great power whose burgeoning economy provides good opportunities for profitable investment.
Pakistan's Economy in Shambles
However, the 1990s have witnessed a change to our disadvantage. Over the past few years, the Indian economy has grown at an annual rate of five to six per cent, and inflation has been controlled. Exports have shown a healthy
growth. By contrast, our economy has stagnated, and the sanctions imposed after the nuclear tests of May 1998 have not helped.
1)The national savings rate in Pakistan is around 13 per cent; it is 50 per cent higher in India;
2) The tax-to-GDP ratio in Pakistan is 12 per cent, whereas it exceeds 18 per cent in India.
These two indicators alone point to a 50 per cent higher rate of investment and revenue collection in India than in Pakistan.
Pakistan is snookered by Indians into spending more on arms and into bankruptCy
But as one of the aides of the Pakistan PM has indicated, Pakistan ought to pause and think whether the Indians are not doing a local variant of Star Wars
the way Americans did on the Russians for making them wholly bankrupt. The Russians lost all their economic and political superstructure in trying to keep up with the Americans. Pakistan has to keep in mind the relative scarcity and
smallness of its resource base in mind while deciding upon how to react. In any case, reacting in the like manner would involve massive expenditure that Pakistan economy is simply not capable of bearing. That ought to make us think logically and in a dispassionate manner.
Bid to attack Vajpayee, Sonia foiled: Indian Police
CHANDIGARH, Sept 19: Police in East Punjab arrested two Sikhs on Sunday and alleged they were Pakistan-trained suicide bombers planning attacks on Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and opposition leader
Sonia Gandhi. Sarabjit Singh, Director General of Punjab police, said the Sikhs belonged to Babbar Khalsa and were directed to target top Indian leaders. "Both suicide bombers Manjit Singh and Amrik Singh were trained by the Pakistani intelligence and were to target leaders including Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and Congress Party President Sonia Gandhi," he said.
PPP says govt using 'thugs' to intimidate opponents
KARACHI, Sept 19: The Pakistan People's Party on Sunday condemned, what it called, the use of thugs, criminals and dacoits by the Nawaz regime to intimidate the party's workers. A Bilawal House spokesman said the burning of the party's office in Keti Bunder, attack on the PPP secretariat in Peshawar and robbery at the house of the party's women wing's office-bearer, Kulsoom Chandio, proved that the
regime was using criminals and thugs against its opponents.
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Russian planes bomb guerrilla bases
MOSCOW, Sept 19: Russian warplanes on Sunday launched fresh attacks against guerilla bases in Chechnya, and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin appealed for unity in the fight against "terrorism".
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BRAWALPINDI, Sept 19: The death toll in the Chenab Express accident, which took place late onSaturday night at Wah, has risen to 20 while over 100 passengers of the Karachi-bound train remain under treatment at different hospitals of Rawalpindi, Islamabad and Wah.
Car-lifting racket
WHILE the number of cases of car snatchings and car theft in Karachi has been different for each month since the beginning of the year - recording either an increase in the number of cars taken away or a marginal drop in such cases
- the general trend in this area of crime shows no signs of abating.
Unfortunately, while some efforts such as sandblasting the chassis number on the windscreen and the spot checking of vehicle documents have been taken by the authorities to keep car-lifters in check, these have not proved sufficiently effective. According to one estimate, about 40,000 motorcycles and cars have fallen prey to this crime since 1992. It seems as if car snatchings have become something of thriving industry in this city.
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