Forbes Asia — October 2017

CHIEF PRODUCT OFFICER Lewis D’Vorkin

FORBES MAGAZINE
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FORBES ASIA

SIDELINES

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Steve Forbes

T

wo fateful Islamist up-

risings shook the world

in the late 1970s. The

more recognized one was led

by Ayatollah Khomeini in Iran.

The other was General Zia-ul-

Haq’s coup d’état in Pakistan,

which turned the long creep

away from the country’s secular

origins into a gallop. During

Zia’s reign, Pakistan’s nuclear-

bomb aims were realized, and

the world has been an edgier place since.

Today it’s as hard as ever to gauge Pakistani progress toward being a modern,

peaceable state. The timeless animosity with Hindu India shows little abeyance,

aggravated as always by the handling of Kashmir and no doubt fueled by the rise

of fundamentalists in Indian politics. Superpower relations continue their histori-

cal influence: The U.S., weary of Islamabad’s perceived duplicities (exemplified by

the quartering of Osama bin Laden), has snubbed its role in Afghanistan while

China—a friend for decades, as a foe of India—is pouring billions into Belt &

Road investments.

Pakistan’s long-underwhelming economy has shown renewed zest (a record

five domestic companies appeared on our Best Under A Billion list this year), but

that masks imbalances: A surplus of imports threatens the rupee and may trigger

another IMF bailout.

Behind the long-term lag in Pakistan’s GDP lies the intrusion of the military

into internal affairs, regional rivalries (Sindh versus Punjab), the waste of human

development in Zia-fostered Wahhabi madrassas and the never-ending strife among

the nation’s political clans. Lately this last factor has brought the removal of prime

minister Nawaz Sharif in favor of his party’s Shahid Khaqan Abbasi—all the while

trolled by opponent Imran Khan, a verbal flamethrower against the Americans.

Abbasi made the rounds at September’s UN meetings in New York, advancing

the familiar Pakistani line that everything, including security of the nuclear arms,

is just fine, Jack. A long, lamentable record of instability, punctuated by the part

that Pakistan and China played in North Korean proliferation, does not attest to

the PM’s pat assurances. Results will speak louder.

Problematic Pakistan

Tim Ferguson

Editor, forbes asia

[email protected] MUHAMMAD REZA/ANADOLU AGENCY/GETTY IMAGES

6 | FORBES ASIA OCTOBER 2017

PM Abbasi emerged from latest political scrum.