Rampant poverty
October 10, 2008 PRESIDENT Asif Ali Zardari is confident enough that the country will be able to pull itself out of the prevailing credit crunch crisis. Talking to media he on Thursday remarked that the country was not a limited firm, which could go bankrupt. While it is good to see the president painting an optimistic picture, the fact remains that the challenges faced by Pakistan's economy seem to be increasing by the hour. The situation has been made worse by extraneous factors like the global financial crisis that has caught even the richest nations of the world unawares. The government no doubt, worried by this dismal scenario, is taking some steps to repair the damage. At present a team headed by Prime Minister's Adviser on Finance Shaukat Tarin is in Washington to hammer out some sort of arrangement with the IMF and the World Bank to prevent the liquidity from drying up. Mr Tarin has also expressed the hope that other than ventures like 'Friends of Pakistan', the US will itself come up with a $5 billion package to aid our system.
