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Amid unrest, crisis, recession :
Pakistan Govt marks year in office
Pakistan Pakistan's government marks one year in office Wednesday
still battling to contain the political and security meltdown
threatening to engulf the frontline state in the US-led "war on terror."
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani was sworn in on March 25, 2008 amid
hopes democracy would rise from the ashes of military rule and the
aftermath of the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.
A year on and insurgents are still fighting government forces, the
economy has needed an international bailout and the nation's political
leaders are at loggerheads.
"Upon coming into power, the government was faced with enormous
political, economical and security challenges," Gilani acknowledged
Wednesday.
"The high expectations held by the nation, having been through nearly
a decade of military rule coupled with difficult times, meant the
government was always going to be in for a fair amount of criticism."
Gilani's government, sworn in on March 31, 2008, hopes to secure a
record aid package from the United States, which is desperate to
stabilise a country whose border with Afghanistan is a safe haven for
Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.
Money and military hardware are the only way the weak administration
can counter Pakistan's deepening troubles, officials say, in a country
where bomb blasts and suicide attacks have killed 645 people over the
past 12 months.
"Democratic institutions are functioning in the country but... the
leadership gives no indication that they can handle economic, political
and law and order issues effectively," said political analyst Hasan
Askari.
Dreams of a national unity government vanished when Nawaz Sharif's
Pakistan Muslim League-N walked out in August over the government's
refusal to restore chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, sacked under
emergency rule in 2007.
Gilani's flagship achievement - reinstating Chaudhry - amounted to
little more than a dramatic U-turn designed to pull the nation back from
the brink of chaos.
Although Gilani announced the decision, Army Chief of staff Ashfaq
Kayani and US pressure were widely credited as the decisive factors.
On the economic front, the International Monetary Fund was forced to
bail out Pakistan, to stop the country defaulting on its debts, and last
November approved a stand-by loan of 7.6 billion dollars.
Inflation stands at 20 percent and gross domestic product is
estimated at 2.5 percent this fiscal year, down from 5.8 percent last
year, according to official statistics.
"We should be prepared for the impact of global recession on our
economy, just round the corner... The government's main achievement was
its success in getting the IMF loan," said economist Kaiser Bengali.
ISLAMABAD, Wednesday, AFP
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