Pakistan: The Express Tribune, a Pakistani daily newspaper, has praised India for the first time due to its increasing presence and importance on the global stage. The paper highlighted India’s relevance to the world, emphasizing its population and size and its impact worldwide.
One of the opinion piece writers of the Express Tribune, Shehzad Chaudhary, said, “If I were Henry Kissinger, I would compose a treatise examining Indian history since its independence in 1947 and look ahead to the country’s potential in future. India’s internal and external status has seen immense growth in recent years, making it wise to consider what lies ahead for the nation.
As per the reports, India 2022 took over the UK in order to become the fifth-largest economy in the world, and India also aims to become the third-largest economy in the world by 2037. Whereas, Pakistan’s economy relies on financial assistance from the global community.
The international community has made an amazing contribution to Pakistan by assisting them with 8 billion USD, which helps them to fight in a climate-resilient manner after the catastrophic floods of last year that killed 1,739 and impacted 33 million people.
Moreover, Chaudhary also commended India for having foreign exchange reserves of more than USD 600 billion, fourth in the world, while Pakistan currently has only USD 4.5 billion.
Pakistan is amidst the most serious crisis it has faced since 1971. The political system has been severely damaged as a result of its own mistakes, resulting in a decrease in its global influence.
While Comparing India with China, the world’s second-largest economy after the US, he stated, “Its growth rate in GDP matches the best-performing economies from the past thirty years after China.”
India climbed to 100 billion USD in reserves in 2004 from the measly 9.2 it had in 1992. Chaudhary said India increased its reserves under Manmohan Singh’s leadership, which was 252 billion USD in 2014. Under current PM Narendra Modi’s leadership, it is more than 600 billion, and the GDP is over three trillion USD. This monumental progress makes India a preferred destination for all investors.
Moreover, foreign investors avoid bringing money to Pakistan for various reasons, like political instability, discontinuity of macroeconomic policy, terrorism, corruption, and energy shortages.
He praised the concept of a “coherent and functional polity”, something Pakistan has been without since its founding, indicating his disappointment.
Furthermore, he said India is one of the top producers of agriculture as well as in the IT industry. India’s yields per acre in agriculture are the best in the world. Despite having a population of 1.4 billion people, it remains relatively steady, functional polity, and coherent.
He criticized Pakistan’s ally, Saudi Arabia, stating, “Despite Pakistan’s pleas, Saudi Arabia has made a massive investment of more than 72 billion USD in India, while the 7 billion promised to Pakistan remains unfulfilled.”
India’s global footprint is remarkable. It is invited to the G7 and also going to lead the G20 this year. It also has a blueprint for establishing its domain on the foreign policy front and sticks to it assiduously.
Chaudhary also highlighted India and Russia relations by saying, “Russia is under American sanctions, and nobody can trade with them freely except India, which purchases Russian oil on preferred terms and the re-exports it in a bid to help an old patron to earn dollars indirectly. Chaudhry remarked that if two of the most powerful military forces in the world are claiming India as an ally, it must be a major diplomatic success.