Spock - investors don’t just come up with ideas and implement them.
If you know anything about business, then you have to create the right economic and political environment if you expect people to invest in your country.
And to set the right environment the government has to implement the right policies, the right banking and credit laws, the right commercial laws, the right laws to protect investors, the right securities laws, the right trade laws…no one in their right mind would invest in a country like Pakistan especially after 1999 given our economic and political situation back then.
But investors gained confidence in Pakistan due to the Musharraf’s policies. It is his actions which gave investors confidence. He attracted up to billions of dollars of foreign investment into the country.
Pakistan became one of the most investment friendly nations, our entire banking system was restructured in 2002. Most barriers to the flow of capital and international direct investment were removed. Foreign exchange controls were eased, import tariffs were reduced. He privatized the economy, and greatly reduced our foreign debt. Pakistan’s economy in 1999 was $75 billion and now its $160 bilion. Our oil, gas, banking, automobile sector and telecommunications sector experienced massive growth. Hundreds of thousands of jobs were created.
**All of this doesn’t happen on its own - the leadership of the country has to set the right regulatory framework.
How can you say Zardari was Mush’s parting gift??? The NRO gave him a clean sheet not power. The public voted for him so if you want to blame someone, then blame your fellow citizens!**
Musharraf may have left Pakistan in a bad state but he did provide us with the basic needs to continue on, he set a platform from which we can build, he held free and fair democratic elections. Zardari maybe in power now, but clearly everyone hates him and hopefully in the next elections someone better will be elected. This is democracy. Initially its all luck but over time democracy improves as people become more literate.
**
Musharraf’s parting gift: freedom to vote for anyone we want = democracy.**
Unfortunately, Pakistan’s military has been in power for about 2/3rd the time since our existence. As a result, this completely screwed up our system.
Democracy takes time to work properly and we have to go through a trial and error process (since majority is not always right). Pakistan’s military have not let us go through this trial and error process and hence we have never had proper elections. If our military leaders had never intervened then we would be like India today. After all, they have a successful democracy. Unfortunately in 1958 the military had to step in and screw up our entire system.
And then in 1999 we came to a point that if we had continued on with NS then we would have failed as a nation. Someone had to step in, someone had to give Pakistan a temporary boost to catch up with the rest of the world and other developing nations such as India and China.
Pakistan did not have the time to go through a trial and error process of democracy (well this is my opinion). The best way for that temporary boost was the military.
And I believe Musharraf gave us that boost, even though he ruined his name in the process but hopefully now Zardari should complete his 5 year term without any interruptions and then hopefully the public will realize that they were wrong and will elect someone better.
The problem is: us = the pakistani public, we are not happy that we finally have democracy in our country, our sole aim is bent on getting revenge on the previous leaders. We never look ahead. The new government has been in power for almost 2 years but we still look back at Mush and blame everything on him. 2 years after Mush, in 2001 Pakistan were in a much better situation than in 1999. But now in 2010 we are in a worse state than in 2008.
I’m a pro-Mush and anti-NS/Zaradari but I don’t go on about ranting that NS and Zardari should be hanged or tried against.
For god sake FORGET ABOUT IT.
ALL I WANT IS: for the next 3 years to pass by extremely quickly so that Zardari’s term is over and I just hope in the meantime he makes some good decisions.
You should remember the leadership represents the people. We voted for Zardari. We deserve to suffer under him. All we can do at the moment, is wait for the next elections and make a better decision rather than creating civil unrest and blaming the past leadership.
And lastly, you said you didn’t defend NS/Zardari. So who do you support??? I just noted that you haven’t really sided with anyone so…
Are you one of those who just sit down and criticize all the different leaders??
I really get annoyed when people say they don’t support anyone - I’m not trying to say you are one of them - thats why I’m asking you who you support, I’m just saying in general - because as a Pakistani there is no option as none of the above, you have to support someone.
Wait, they must be Nawaz Sharif/zardari supporters. OMG every debater is a winner in political forums so please no more! haha