Re: Pakistan’s economic standing
The fact that Pakistan is put ahead of countries like Switzerland and Belgium, shows that GDP alone can not be used to measure development of country. Because GDP does not look at the population of a country. For example, a country of 1000 people making $10 is not the same as a country of 50 people making $10.
A better indication of development of a country is Human Development Index.
The Human Development Index (HDI) is a comparative measure of life expectancy, literacy, education and standards of living for countries worldwide. It is a standard means of measuring well-being, especially child welfare. It is used to distinguish whether the country is a developed, a developing or an under-developed country, and also to measure the impact of economic policies on quality of life.
In the HDI list of 2010, Pakistan’s number is 125 out of 169 countries. The list is available on the same wikipedia link.
I want Pakistan to be no. 1 in everything but I would not like to fool myself. Pakistan has long way to go. The first thing we need to do is to improve security situation and eliminate extremism. Development and insecurity are inversely proportional.