And oh, Uncle Sam pays Pakistan $600 million annually in aid... let's not forget other economic benfits mounting to billions of dollars in trade growth.
As long as Uncle Sam is there with us, Pakistan is with them. As soon as they move out and on, Pakistan will give a big cuddle to Chacha on our north.
I believe that's how relationships with uncertain nations should be like.
Agreed, before 9/11, Pakistan was heading nowhere(including 2 yrs of Mush before 9/11).
Then money/aid/remittances, etc came flooding in to stabilise the situation, leading to a 'mini-boom'. However once the War on 'Terror' is finished with Pakistan, it will go back to the same bad situation
Isnt it a fact that the Pak economy took a beating due to the US sanctions which followed the nuclear tests ? That situation improved only post 9/11, once Pak joined the US led coalition against terrorism.
Pakistans economy suffered countless shocks during the supposed deomcratic period of the late 80's till 99. US sanctions in 1990, forced into IMF agreements by the Zia government and the international sanctions after the 1998 tests as well as how the Army forced an increase in spending on the military.
However its a historical fact that civilians tend to be more pro Pakistani than Military rulers..most of Pakistans indepenent deterrents, nuke programme, missle programme and others were done by civilians. Military rulers tend to prefer siding with America to secure themselves domestically..which the US is happy to do..its when the military tries to cash in US support for pakistans benefit that things go wrong.
Sanctions were mainly military/weapons related and that was for "imports" or "buying", there were no trade sanctions that would've harmed economy. Economy was downhill due to the corruption of Nawaz Sharif and Benazir governments (back and forth).