So - in this thread, we're discussing economic growth and parity, not parity in numbers of nuclear warheads. Defense spending helps only one group of people in Pakistan, those in the military. What about the rest of the Pakistanis? Here are those factors,
These (shown above) are the costs that Pakistan's people had to pay for military readiness. Numbers above are current as of 2015, difference now in 2019 is even more stark, especially in population growth, total fertility rate and per capita GDP. Look at this headline,
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...census-disaster-poverty-million-a7938816.html
Current average total fertility rate for Bangladesh is around 2.0 while that of Pakistan is 3.6. In village areas Pakistan's TFR is twice that of Bangladesh. At this rate and without birth control, Pakistan's population growth issue is a time-bomb that Pakistan will have a hard time handling in the next couple of decades.
Whether in health or education related measurable HDI's - Pakistan has fallen behind most countries in South Asia.
These are not pleasant topics to discuss - but your enemies won't point out your issues, only those who care about you will... Just having an elite and an upper middle class connected to the military will not save Qaum, you need a robust base of a semi-educated working class populace and invest in industrial infra now to give these people a consistent livelihood to sustain them. These low income folks (and their consistent income and well being) hold up the rest of society. It is true that Pakistan boasts lower number of poor, but that should not be a solace in the long term.
Instead of another rant about having F-16's, Thunder fighters and nuclear warheads (which will rarely, if ever be used, if diplomacy resolves issues), Pakistan is seriously falling behind as a country on social and HDI counts because of Pakistan's military spending that is inconsistent with its economic situation. These are not my words, but words coming from Pakistani intellectuals. Their words are simply not anti-military and they are not enemies of the state in Pakistan. Current situation is not sustainable.
Putting all Pakistan's eggs in the CPEC basket is seemingly great, but should it be the only one - what if the effects of CPEC are not as magnanimous as they have been hyped up to? How come we don't have CPEC in Bangladesh and growth is still happening? I can definitely tell you what we have done RIGHT so far...and what we avoided.
India is an economic GIANT but a social PYGMY compared to Bangladesh. Pakistan is not even in the picture. How did this happen?
India, China, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh gained independence around the same time. Until 1960 all four countries had almost identical per capita income.
Today China is an economic miracle with impressive human development indicators (HDI). Bangladesh is an economic pygmy but outshines even China on improvements in a few social parameters.
India's record is mixed. Sri Lanka, meantime, is not only ahead of its South Asian neighbors by miles -it ranks 73 compared to India's 130 on the HD Index -it's better placed than even China (which is at 90).
Pakistan, at 147, is the laggard in this pack.
These are things to think about brother....