Really heartening to see Pakistanis finally not showing up to support Muslims. After all iron brother/strategic ally more important than fellow Muslims in China. If only, this policy were applied across.
I've been discussing the FATF and other issues peculiar to the Pakistan economy with the Pakistanis.
They are a street smart and hard nosed bunch. And know which way the cookie crumbles and which side of their bread is buttered.
You can be sure that there is intense push and pull going on balancing their two Iron Brothers who are at each others throats on this issue.
The hardcore fundamentalists will be kept in check by the deep state.
After all, hardcore fundamentalists have needs too.
Yes there are downsides to leveraging your internal assets to keep the war machine against India going. Like the price they have paid and continue to pay internally.
But they've managed to hold on in their own way, and looked at strictly academically, their trajectory over the past 7 decades versus that of ours could be a really interesting case study in nation building and running and war fighting.
Cheers, Doc