Let us get few things straight the thread's topic is Bangladesh's loss - Pakistan blessing or disaster, my opinion has always been it has worked out best for both Bangladesh and Pakistan so its not a disaster for Pakistan or Bangladesh for that matter, blessing yes in a way it is. Militarily it is a loss for both apart from being a logistical nightmare for any military it was. We were never meant to be together, seeds of separation were laid through creation of Bengal Provincial Muslim League in 1912. Post Independence as is the case with rulers across Muslim world instead of being forward looking and trying to address the protectionism of Bengal's populace about their culture and language, the ruler of west Pakistan did not identify this potential ticking time bomb, people like Nazimuddin, mohammad ali bogra, despite being bengalis did nothing to address it. Bangladesh was separated my generation which was born after the separation though knows about it up to primary school level (when the separation was pretty new) there was a sense of loss but afterward please note it in all honestly Bangladesh has never been on our radar, our new generation doesn't know either or is least bothered for them its history.
Since you have been on this forum for almost a decade I will leave the your possible sarcasm out and try and address some of the points you have raised, my observations/analysis as an analyst Bangladesh economy has shown remarkable improvement over the last decade or so there are many reasons behind it but continuity of one party rule has a major contribution, cheap labor is another, relative peace with neighbors is another one. Due to relative peace with neighbors and some political reasons your defense spending as a percentage of GDP is low. There is a stark difference in the living conditions of an average Bangladeshi and an average Pakistani, you compared to us are less inclined toward luxuries so import bill of both countries have a 180 degree difference between them.
In our case the situation is different we have hostile neighbors on more than one front our economy has always been more towards defense/offense. Pakistan economy is more of a consumer economy with agriculture a major component. First the poverty figures of 40% could be wishful thinking in reality it is around 18%. There is another major component and that is the difference between poverty and food security, poverty may be around 18% food security altogether a different thing. Even in the most remote parts of my country people get goats, and one family could and do live off one goat, there is no problem as far as grazing is concerned and lot of goats produce is bartered for other consumables. This is not reflected in IMF or economic figures. There are lot of efforts/projects going on in the private sector for economic uplift and literacy for impoverished portion of our society, while Dr. Younus's model of community based lending for poverty alleviation failed (not due to the model but political difference and negative media coverage), Dr. Amjad Saqib's model of qard-e-hassana is expanding at a rapid pace, not only Provincial governments but federal has also started to pool money into it. Last week I was with the team and their disbursement has crossed 70 Billion PKR with an average qard-e-hassana ranging between Rs.10 k to Rs.50 k, along vocational training I think we are moving in the right direction their NPL is 0.03%. Illiteracy is an issue at the govt level not much is being done but then again private sector charity organization, huge corporate entities having their charity wings are working tirelessly to address this problem I know a few personally, we are not going to achieve 80% or 90% literacy rate in the next five years but 2 decades down the road yes, definitely.
Let me give you example of two charity organizations one is operating over 2500 schools in Pakistan with with an average strength of 80, there is no tuition fee, books, copies and all relevant material is provided free of cost, even lunch is being provided to the students the educational standard is way above public sector schools, children are encouraged to learn vocational training and traits. After high school brilliant students are sponsored up to any level as long as they continue, I have more stats but thats the idea. There is another charity schools system where tuition fee is Rs.100 per month student from not-have families only are admitted, the educational standard is up to the mark of our elite schools, many of us Pakistanis adopt children (means sponsor them) for a meager sum of Rs.3500 per month. Only one school's strength is over 3500 students, they have multiple schools in various cities. Organization like mine are regular contributors as well through their CSR funds (corporate social responsibility funds).
Our economic problem is not export we were never an export oriented economy raw material yes, but value addition no, never. This is something which will take at least a decade of planning and implementation. What I see happening as export potential is human resource, IT, services and being a global transport hub and defense exports.
You are discounting two major factors as to the economic rise of Bangladesh.
One is the micro-finance revolution, second is dynamism of local entrepreneurs. Govt. involvement (other than tax incentives) had squat to do with our development. It is clear you are not aware of Bangladeshi developmental details.
Two of the world largest charitable NGO's - Grameen and BRAC, are located in Bangladesh (we were the pioneers of the NGO movement in the seventies, there are thousands of NGO's here) and they did a huge part in eliminating poverty and improving health and education here.
Both of these larger NGO's were led by men of vision and they were highly decorated and recognized for their sincere, focused achievements internationally through the years. Dr. Yunus is a Nobel prize winner and Sir Fazle Hassan Abed is a recipient of knighthood from the British govt. Check out Dr. Yunus' prolific speeches in Youtube sometime, you can learn a few things.
Micro Finance or NGO's did not leave a significant mark for the Pakistani poor. Your govts. long term inaction may be to blame.
One party rule is a recent phenomenon in Bangladesh, and had nothing to do with our development. Govt. did leave the export sectors alone (mainly apparel) and certainly did enough to hinder export growth (Port congestion being their main 'contribution'). Things have changed over the years however. Chittagong port ranks fairly high in container traffic in South Asia now (other than India's Nehru port).
The claim that Pakistan cannot grow by 'traditional' exports is pretty much unsupported view. Pakistan's economic situation is not unlike Bangladesh with a large and uneducated poor population, some would say worse. And to apply salt to the wound, women cannot participate. These factors (lack of education, skills) were not addressed and corrected.
How will these unskilled, semi-skilled, uneducated people eat - without some meaningful viable ways to earn a living? Everyone cannot go to Dubai/London and drive cabs and be janitors/security guards. Not women certainly with all the high-minded Pakistani beghairat-mand concept.
Local consumption growth is fine, but traditional exports (other than defense) have to grow as well. People need viable long-term skills to offer
something of value to export, like apparel, shoes, house-hold items and not just niche items like surgical goods and sports items. Even with labor costs a bit higher than Bangladesh, Pakistan could have done a lot to export something of value that was viable. The whole of East Asia used this value addition paradigm (export of apparel, shoes, house-hold items) to develop over the last thirty years. Pakistan cannot 'invent' a new paradigm all by itself, like growing rich by defense exports.
Defense export is tough business with some tough competition.
- First, there are older proven, credible supplier-country standbys like Italy and France (they have sold you plenty of items as evident). Russia is also a significant defense exporter. Your products compared to these suppliers stands nowhere.
- Second there are new entrants like Turkey and China (ditto again) who offer reasonable quality and excellent value proposition to substitute those from the old standby countries which is tough competition. Your products compared to these suppliers again loses in price/performance ratio.
- And third - the dollars earned from low-volume defense export is too low. This business is seeing a slow decline as well.
- People do not see Pakistan as a credible, reliable defense exporter offering high-tech engineering items. This is the current perception - which is, again - 90% reality.
It is one thing to line the pockets of generals by building defense industry in Pakistan, quite another to make these viable sources of export to earn sufficient revenue. These won't fill the belly of the hungry Pakistani.
Pakistan has its work cut out for defense exports without offering unique products and not re-hashed items like ex-Swedish (Musshaq - from SAAB) or ex-American (Talha - from US M113) copies, which are tired, dated designs only fit for the most undeveloped African markets.
I don't see defense export turning into a rip-roaring success yet for Pakistan. So far this propaganda of Pakistan turning into a defense export powerhouse is only being mooted as a money-losing concept by Fauji hacks in Pakistan. The other thing is, feudalism says there is explicit interest in keeping the Pakistani poor, hungry and uneducated. Which is the opposite of what we believe in Bangladesh.
I'd love to be proven wrong however.
I was thinking of finding relevance with some phrase in the end came up with my own when an individual loses his contact with reality he becomes delusional but when an entire nations of irrelevant becomes delusional it becomes Bengali.
They have this tendency of infesting everywhere where they could find Pakistanis and try to convince them Bangladesh has become a big powerhouse of export, Pakistanis should not only be envious but jealous as well. Our younger generation doesn't even know that we had sh*thole of an east wing. I was discussing with my younger one some of the vomiting bengalis do here he asked me who are these people and what is their problem, I told him they were part of Pakistan one time like 50 years ago, a child does ask such questions why are they still stuck in the past of 50 years ago, they should move one. Buzz off, go eat your fish/rice amalgam and decide amongst yourself how to lick it from elbows. shooo, shooo
SMH - if this is coming out of your head as a supposed 'mature' older Pakistani, then what of the immature ones? Sharm ki baat....
By the way, your continual racist harping on Fish/Rice is getting a bit tiresome around here. Dhaka has plenty of restaurants serving KOBE beef and other delicacies (like Sushi) flown in from overseas, and some gourmet kitchens managed by Cordon-bleu chefs (with prices to match).
But how would you know?
Be happy in your knowledge (or lack thereof).
