Lost Opportunities (recent closure of NATO logistic routes through Pakistan)

Oct. 12, 2010 - PRLog -- The recent closure of NATO logistic routes through Pakistan in response to US cross border attacks has high-lighted the enormous opportunity lost by Pakistan. Massive tonnages of fuel and military equipment have been moving through the length of Pakistan north to Afghanistan after being unloaded at the ports in the south. In addition to the internal insecurity that attacks on these convoys have created within the country there has been serious degradation of port facilities and roads. It will take years and millions to undo the colossal damage done and being done. With some forethought the ports and roads could have been upgraded through some kind of toll or surcharge for this specific purpose. Now nine years later there is a realization that Pakistan has lost a great deal.

The reason for the lack of vision is the haste with which the agreement to support NATO was concluded. The haste has political roots because it was seen as an opportunity to curry favor with the US and survive in power. This is the main reason for the acceptance of aid that may have seemed substantial but is actually not quite adequate for the price paid by Pakistan and Pakistanis over the last nine years. The country is seriously destabilized from within, its people are divided, the government is under fire, the infrastructure is degraded and the threat that was to be destroyed is more potent than before. As the US grapples with the fallout of a war that should never have been, Pakistan takes stock of its losses in the wake of a natural calamity that has long term economic and social implications. Without US and other countries’ support and loans from international financial institutions survival may have been imperiled.

Spearhead Analysis - 12.10.10

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