While not reducing the importance of our dispute with India over Kashmir and water, these need a
separate tripartite dialogue later.
Pakistan is getting only a fraction of the military support it should get. Comparatively, Afghanistan is budgeted much more for doing far less. Weapons and equipment desperately needed to continue our counterinsurgency operations include helicopters, night-vision devices, mine-resistant armoured carriers and laser-guided bombs. With Kayani and Pakistan's secretary of defence, Athar, in the government "A" team negotiating in Washington DC, the
military wish-list can be quickly finalised.
Glaring deficiencies need overcoming and/or rectification for lasting economic stability. In a recent memo to the Executive Council of the American Business Council, IBM's Humayun Bashir noted that "energy shortages are choking. Pakistan needs short-term and long-term help in the following order: (1) onetime help to overcome
circular debt, (2)
rental power plants, (3)
nuclear plants like India, and (4)
water and hydel power (projects), Basha, etc." The Executive Council echoed his suggestions about (1) effective policing for better law-and-order enforcement, (2) job creation, with emphasis on the
IT sector, (3) agriculture promotion in order to
double the yield in five years, (4) effective healthcare, and (5) developing the railways as the transportation backbone to reduce freight charges.
...
"The US-India nuclear accord has created a dangerous imbalance in nuclear détente with India that Pakistan has to address. Denying us cheap energy from nuclear plants makes no sense except cause hardship for our people." A nuclear energy deal may be on the table in Washington DC, the acid test of a long-term meaningful relationship will be if Pakistan gets a similar nuclear pact as with India. If correcting misconceptions about the US image is also an objective,
there is nothing more effective for a positive public perception in Pakistan than a nuclear deal.
The
Pakistani granary that currently feeds Afghanistan and other countries in the region can be enhanced many times over by giving agriculture top priority. Mechanisation aside, better storage facilities, farm-to-market access roads, irrigation canals, tube wells, etc., are all needed. Since cotton serves our textile industry, this cash-earner is what holds up the economy. We need
free access to US markets. Trade, not aid! To be practical and realistic, instead of having ROZs, the
entire Fata must be made a free trade zone. Challenging adversity with imagination will ensure economic activity both sides of the Durand Line. Providing means of livelihood will give the inhabitants reason to protect the means thereof.
Neither funded, trained or equipped to the standards required, our civilian law enforcement agencies badly lack the leadership and organisation necessary to confront our major challenge of terrorism. To quote my article "Countering insurgency and terrorism": "The army should not face another debilitating exercise 'in aid of civil power.' Their major mission is on our borders. A Counter-Terrorism Force (CTF) in Pakistan, officered by the army, must be developed on the pattern of the tremendously successful Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) that almost eliminated poppy cultivation and drug smuggling. Using the ANF's existing structure as a nucleus, it should be converted into the CTF. What about
reallocating $5-6 billion to form the CTF and replenish/refurbish the Pakistani army's capacity?"
...
Our doctors are conceivably among the
best in the world.
Pakistan has, barring the odd exception, the
worst healthcare 
facilities in the world.
...
The writer is a defence and political analyst. Email:
[email protected] 
..both say
