Yes but the economic problems aren't just governance related. Better governance will not be a panacea for Pakistan. The issue is exacerbated by the violence and the active insurgency in so many areas..sanctions at this time will deal a heavy blow. You should have waited 4-5 years, brought stability to your economy and flushed out the extremists- after that you would have had room for maneuvering.
I disagree I think that better Governance is indeed the panacea for Pakistan for even the two concerns that pointed out explicitly so are not only intrinsically but almost exclusively linked to them. To understand that better let us divide violence & the insurgency into 3 broad categories :
(a) the TTP led insurgency
(b) the Baluch Separatist militancy
(c) the Target Killings (Political or Sectarian)
Points (b) & (c) are solely due to an abysmal state of governance for right now you've got a few things that are catalyzing it in the present despite either of these issues existing for most of Pakistan's history :
(i) next to no development in impoverished areas of Baluchistan & Rural Punjab.
(ii) a severe trust deficit between the common man & the State Apparatus due to a consistent record of the bureaucracy & the security apparatus in being atrociously bad.
(iii) an absolutely shameful law & order situation throughout the country due to the chronic politicization of the Police, the bureaucracy & even the judiciary.
So take care of the Governance aspect of things & the rest will fall in line ! If the Civil Servant under you knows that the Minister sitting above is going have me suspended all the delayed development works due to corruption, nepotism & plain lethargy would end. If the Police SP knows that if I don't stop all these elements in my area of responsibility, despite knowing where & who they are, as every SP knows, then the MP is going to get my lynched before the Magistrate Court ! If the MPs themselves stop gobbling up billions of $$$s even small but focused & sincere efforts in alleviating some of the concerns of the common man is going to pay enormous dividends !
We're one of the largest givers of charity in the world for christsake...imagine where even a little amount of trust can take the current tax-to-GDP ratio, the buying of Government Bonds or just plain Government sponsored philanthropic work would take us. And that would come through good governance & good governance alone. Take Punjab for example - Things could be exponentially better than they are & yet we're not facing half the sh*t that the rest of the country is & why ? Because the Provincial Govt. might be a bunch of thieves (not crooks) who'd invest in the most idiotic of projects but unlike the Federal Govt. it doesn't gobble up every last dime of tax payer's money but spends quite a bit of it & more often than not gets the job done even if it could have been done better - But thats much more than we can say about the Federal Govt. right now.
And so that leaves us with point (a) - The TTP led insurgency has to be looked at through two different angles :
(i) as part of the greater security situation in the region & the yes we do have a narrative on that & the TTP !
And (ii) as part of that issue of abysmal governance again - The Army has done her job in evicting them from Swat, from most of the Tribal Areas, KPK & the rest but the Civilian Executive doesn't seem to back that up with development work in those regions or even purely taking up the operational workings of the State Machinery therein & letting the Army move out ! You'd be surprised to know the amount of development work the Army has been doing in both the Tribal Areas & even Baluchistan whereas this should have been the responsibility of the Govt. instead of the Army & they despite repeated callings from every quarter from the Army to come in & take over seem to be least bothered.
As things stand there is very little scope for absorbing any shocks in the economy atm. Besides you have to take into consideration that 2014 is indeed the date to look to here, the US does not plan to leave a heavy presence (in terms of gear such as tanks etc) in Afghanistan- that toned down presence will not require the GLOC as much as the US forces require it today. It'll all boil down to the result of US's risk-benefit analysis- and Pakistan might not come out on top in that.
Indeed but I gather the thinking right now is - Our economy is chronically energy starved & unless we can feed the demand there won't be much of an economy left to sanction ! In the meantime try to skirt the sanctions by both trying to reach an understanding of sorts behind the doors & by avoiding any sanctionable activity like, say, capital investment in Iran or whatever other particulars there be.
.) many people still believe that india's ultimate goal is to become akhand bharat.
