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BETTER TIMES: Nation benefits from lifting of sanctions, U.S. aid By Michael Tarm ISLAMABAD, Pakistan The events of Sept. 11, 2001 pushed most world economies into the dumps. But for Pakistan, they appear to have marked a turning point — in the other di rection. Though millions still live on less than $1 a day, Pakistan’s economy has sprung to life in no small part because of its decision to join the U.S.-led war on ter rorism 15 months ago. Since then, international sanctions have been lifted, U.S. aid has poured into the country and efforts to rebuild neighbor ing Afghanistan have caused a business boom. Pakistanis living abroad, heartened by their home land’s rising fortunes, are send ing more money home. Analysts say growth and company profits are up; budget deficits and interest rates are down. As stocks worldwide tanked, they shot through the roof here, with Pakistan’s Karachi Stock Exchange surging 112 percent — the highest per centage gain in 2002 of any ma jor bourse on earth. “Pakistan has turned around a deteriorating macro (econom ic) situation of a few years ago to ” a rapidly improving one,” ac cording to an upbeat World Bank report released this weekend. The United States agrees. “Sept. 11 was a_ turning point,” said Terry White, a spokesman at the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad, the capital. ‘*Pak istan was really teetering before then.” For Pakistan, the benefits are doubly ironic. It initially looked set to lose big. It had backed the hard-line Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan that the United States blamed for aiding Osama bin Laden, chief suspect in the Sept. 11 attacks. So Pakistan was at risk of becoming the odd man out. Pakistan was also two years into military rule, imposed after Gen. Pervez Musharraf staged a bloodless coup. Economic sanc tions were slapped on Pakistan and India for conducting nuclear tests in 1998. But after Pakistan sided with Washington as it sought to oust the Taliban, Western nations re warded it by dropping sanctions. Washington also kicked in $1 billion in aid to Pakistan — $600 million of which did not have to be repaid. Pakistan also benefited by selling construction materials to rebuild war-ravaged Afghanistan, according to Ashfaque Khan, a top economic adviser to Pak istan’s government. He said the production of cement in Pakistan had increased sharply as a result. But Pakistan's most conse quential post-Sept. 11 windfall may have come from the flood of cash that poured in as Pakista nis abroad withdrew money from foreign accounts and sent it home. That they sent it home at all helped the economy to begin with. What’s more, their reluc tance to use an ancient informal money-transfer system called hawala — which was suspected by Washington of being used by terrorists — led many Pakistanis to send money home using legal banks.
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Centralia Chronicle
Centralia, Washington, US
Wed, Jan 08, 2003
Page 20
Full Page
Clipped by
Amna A.
USA 30 Aug 2026
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