Article

2008-08-02 India-Pakistan

Govt hoping to get $500m from WB by Sept

Archived material is restricted to Rantburg regulars and members. If you need access email fred.pruitt=at=gmail.com with your nick to be added to the members list. There is no charge to join Rantburg as a member.

Posted by Fred 2008-08-02 00:00|| || Front Page|| [7 views ] Top
File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1 How does the government plan to repay a half billion dollar loan plus interest?

Posted by trailing wife ">trailing wife 2008-08-02 07:08|| 2008-08-02 07:08|| Front Page Top

#2 repay?

Posted by Frank G">Frank G 2008-08-02 07:16|| 2008-08-02 07:16|| Front Page Top

#3 Pakistan is a great advocate of the concept called loan forgiveness

BTW, that 500m would be a downpayment for those Scorpene attack submarines or the Saab AWACS radar aircraft the Pak military is buying. The WB money just frees up the funding for the military.

A small economy like Pakistan can afford to spend the majority of its budget on the military since Saudi Arabia provides oil at discount (or for free) with the West and China providing regular 'budgetary support' and other aid.

As Margaret Bourke-White wrote sixty years ago...

In the weeks to come I was to hear the Quaid-i-Azam's thesis echoed by government officials throughout Pakistan. "Surely America will build up our army," they would say to me. "Surely America will give us loans to keep Russia from walking in." But when I asked whether there were any signs of Russian infiltration, they would reply almost sadly, as though sorry not to be able to make more of the argument. "No, Russia has shown no signs of being interested in Pakistan."

This hope of tapping the U. S. Treasury was voiced so persistently that one wondered whether the purpose was to bolster the world against Bolshevism or to bolster Pakistan's own uncertain position as a new political entity. Actually, I think, it was more nearly related to the even more significant bankruptcy of ideas in the new Muslim state -- a nation drawing its spurious warmth from the embers of an antique religious fanaticism, fanned into a new blaze.

Jinnah's most frequently used technique in the struggle for his new nation had been the playing of opponent against opponent. Evidently this technique was now to be extended into foreign policy. ..

A Pakistan where the army did not command the lion's share of resources might as well not exist. The Pak oligarchy's foundation myth is built on a sense of Muslim martial superiority. Without that, they have nothing.

They've been pretty successful at having their country, basically an unviable entity, supported for the past sixty years on contributions from other nations.

Posted by john frum 2008-08-02 08:50|| 2008-08-02 08:50|| Front Page Top

#4 basically they are a proud martial pure Islamic nation of backwards beggars who can't win a war, lie, cheat, riot on a rumor... but demand respect for their fake accomplishments, stature, and a sovereignty they can't even enforce. Punks on a national scale.

Posted by Frank G">Frank G 2008-08-02 10:12|| 2008-08-02 10:12|| Front Page Top

#5 How can a nation of almost 200million be so pathetic? John Frum is probably right about the Loan Forgiveness issue, they probably have no intention of paying it back.

Posted by bigjim-ky 2008-08-02 11:18|| 2008-08-02 11:18|| Front Page Top

23:07 3dc
22:58 Barbara Skolaut
22:52 Barbara Skolaut
22:51 Barbara Skolaut
22:27 Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo)
22:23 Spike Uniter
22:15 ryuge
22:03 swksvolFF
21:51 CrazyFool
21:45 Anonymoose
21:28 Leonard Plynth Garnell
21:27 tipper
20:53 Procopius2k
20:42 OldSpook
20:34 OldSpook
20:33 Mike Kozlowski
20:32 OldSpook
20:24 penguin
20:15 bigjim-ky
20:13 Swamp Blondie in the Cornfields
20:01 Pappy
20:00 Pappy
19:50 bigjim-ky
19:50 imoyaro