Just to bring things into perspective about the ongoing protests in Pakistan. Here is a comparison of some countries economy.
Small countries like Singapore, UAE, Thailand have a bigger economy than Pakistan.
Even a couple of African countries are higher in total gdp and many others ahead in per capita gdp.
In the 70s when North Korea was growing at a fast pace and left South Korea far behind in Economy and Military, the South Koreans started to panic and then there was a military coup to remove the corrupt politicians, after that the dictator was kicked in early 1980s and by 1990 most corrupt leaches of the military dictator and been rooted out. At that time Pakistan was far ahead of South Korea, In the 1990s Korea economy sky rocketed because of less corruption and will power of honest politicians. They supported the car industry, the airlines, Engineering and semiconductors, this was all made in that decade.
Today you cannot even compare South Korea with Pakistan or North Korea.
Compare India with Pakistan the gap is widening at a very fast pace in military and economy. This is why I believe that another military coup is inevitable because politicians have failed badly in last 7 years. If they say give democracy a chance, it seems like it will take 100 years if we leave democracy like this and let them fix themselves, we do not even have another 5 years or the existence of this country will no longer be there, Bangladesh is closing in on us now.
We have what it takes to build an economy like Korea, we have engineering universities, nanotechnology, nuclear technology, our car industry is being damaged by corrupt politicians.
From this analysis I conclude that the status-quo cannot remain, no matter how hard Nawaz tries it is impossible for him to remain in power.Either there has to be a transition to a genuine democracy as was the case in South Korea after the dictator was deposed it took 10 years to get rid of corrupt leaches left by the dictator.
Or a military take over would be another option, although option 1 would be a better option, military takeover would still be better than Nawaz as was the case during Musharraf Era, the economy would see a growth but the real growth would come if genuine democracy is established.
Nawaz would prefer military take over rather than transition to democracy because that would increase his chances that a corrupt general would not bring accountability and he might still have a political stake for his family in future, would keep open a possibility for an NRO type deal in future.
If he remains in power, Pakistan is already a failed state like North Korea and in a few years the country will lose more land to India possibly another Bangladesh scenario.
We have already lost a chunk of Siachen glacier to India. It takes $4,000 to have one F-16 in the air for one hour. For 100 similar airplanes for 10 hours for 10 days it costs $40 million + munitions would be around $200 million, this is only the cost of operating Pakistan Airforce for 2 weeks war with India. In other words we won't last long.
South Korea also had Nawaz type politicians after the end of military dictatorship, but they were lucky that they had no NRO type deal and they brought accountability and were able to effectively root out corrupt elements in politics. Pakistan has to act decisively in the next few weeks if it is to survive the next few years in this increasing tough neighbourhood.
| Rank | Country/Region | GDP (Millions of US$) |
|---|
| 10 |
| 1,875,213 |
| 15 | 
| 1,129,598 |
| 16 | 
| 878,043 |
| 17 | 
| 788,299 |
| 19 | 
| 711,050 |
| 21 | 
| 551,588 |
| 28 | 
| 385,694 |
| 29 | 
| 384,313 |
| 30 | 
| 383,799 |
| 32 | 
| 369,813 |
| 34 | 
| 304,726 |
| 35 | 
| 276,520 |
| 37 | 
| 262,545 |
| 38 | 
| 254,671 |
| 39 | 
| 250,182 |
| 40 | 
| 248,941 |
| 43 | 
| 215,117 |
Small countries like Singapore, UAE, Thailand have a bigger economy than Pakistan.
Even a couple of African countries are higher in total gdp and many others ahead in per capita gdp.
In the 70s when North Korea was growing at a fast pace and left South Korea far behind in Economy and Military, the South Koreans started to panic and then there was a military coup to remove the corrupt politicians, after that the dictator was kicked in early 1980s and by 1990 most corrupt leaches of the military dictator and been rooted out. At that time Pakistan was far ahead of South Korea, In the 1990s Korea economy sky rocketed because of less corruption and will power of honest politicians. They supported the car industry, the airlines, Engineering and semiconductors, this was all made in that decade.
Today you cannot even compare South Korea with Pakistan or North Korea.
Compare India with Pakistan the gap is widening at a very fast pace in military and economy. This is why I believe that another military coup is inevitable because politicians have failed badly in last 7 years. If they say give democracy a chance, it seems like it will take 100 years if we leave democracy like this and let them fix themselves, we do not even have another 5 years or the existence of this country will no longer be there, Bangladesh is closing in on us now.
We have what it takes to build an economy like Korea, we have engineering universities, nanotechnology, nuclear technology, our car industry is being damaged by corrupt politicians.
From this analysis I conclude that the status-quo cannot remain, no matter how hard Nawaz tries it is impossible for him to remain in power.Either there has to be a transition to a genuine democracy as was the case in South Korea after the dictator was deposed it took 10 years to get rid of corrupt leaches left by the dictator.
Or a military take over would be another option, although option 1 would be a better option, military takeover would still be better than Nawaz as was the case during Musharraf Era, the economy would see a growth but the real growth would come if genuine democracy is established.
Nawaz would prefer military take over rather than transition to democracy because that would increase his chances that a corrupt general would not bring accountability and he might still have a political stake for his family in future, would keep open a possibility for an NRO type deal in future.
If he remains in power, Pakistan is already a failed state like North Korea and in a few years the country will lose more land to India possibly another Bangladesh scenario.
We have already lost a chunk of Siachen glacier to India. It takes $4,000 to have one F-16 in the air for one hour. For 100 similar airplanes for 10 hours for 10 days it costs $40 million + munitions would be around $200 million, this is only the cost of operating Pakistan Airforce for 2 weeks war with India. In other words we won't last long.
South Korea also had Nawaz type politicians after the end of military dictatorship, but they were lucky that they had no NRO type deal and they brought accountability and were able to effectively root out corrupt elements in politics. Pakistan has to act decisively in the next few weeks if it is to survive the next few years in this increasing tough neighbourhood.
