2. Pakistanis do not necessarily ally with the U.S.: "According to a gallup poll of Pakistanis in urban areas, 83 percent sympathize with the Taliban rather than the US and 82 percent consider Oslama bin Laden a holy warrior not a terrorist, although 64 percennt also believe the attack on the US was an act of terrorism"
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5. President Bush links U.S. and Pakistan goals. In July, Bush declares: "Both the United States and Pakistan are threatened by global terror, and we're determined to defeat it. Since [the] September 11th [2001] attacks, Pakistan has apprehended more than five-hundred al-Qaida and Taleban terrorists."
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7. Terrorist attacks continue. Several target Western interests; others perpetuate the Pakistani-Indian territorial standoff.
8. Balochistan's longstanding insurrectionist operations against the Pakistani government gathers steam, creating complications for Pakistani efforts to pursue Al Qaeda in the province
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11. Analysts from the West focus attention on the ISI, Pakistan's Intelligence service. The ISI has long been suspected of supporting jihadist activities against Afghanistan, which would serve Pakistan's strategic interest in quelling potential Afghan power.Economic Cost of Terrorism: Terrorism has done incalculable damage to the economy which is struggling to recover from a deep crisis. According to a recent survey terrorism has cost the economy a hefty sum of Rs 380 billion in 2008 alone over all terrorism has cost the country economy more than $35 billion in lost exports, revenues, opportunity etc. It has been seen that due to these terrorist activities in the country, the image of the country has been badly affected. Today Pakistan is recognized as a base for terrorist activities carried around the entire world. As a result of this we have seen that most of the countries are now reluctant to issue visas to Pakistanis. This has affected a wide group of people in Pakistan as not only businessman are hurt by this but also students and professionals who want to study and work abroad and bring productive wealth back to the country in the form of remittance. Lack of availability of foreign visas has reduced the trade links between Pakistan and the other countries. Foreigners are not willing to do business with Pakistani people only because they are not very accessible. Another impact of terrorism is that it has affected the consumption of society. As now people are afraid to go to the markets since they feel that they are not safe there. This has caused a large fall in the consumption spending due to which it has negative effect on the country’s economic growth. As the GDP growth rate has gone down from 8.40% in 2004-05 to 5.80% in 2007-08 and more recently it has reduced to 2.10% in 2008-09. This will have major impact on the future of the Pakistan as by having a GDP growth of just 2.10% it means it will take around 33 years to double the size of Pakistan’s economy. Country’s exports have gone down from 19.22 (Billion $) to just 6.1 (Billion $) while imports have also gone down. The trade balance is -4.5 (Billion $). This fall in the country exports was mainly because of recession in the global economy and also because of negative image of the country. The terrorist activities has also caused a fall in the foreign direct investment as investor have lost business confidence in the country due to which not only the foreign investor has reduced their investment in Pakistan but also the local people are also not interested in bringing their money into their own country. According to the reports FDI has reduced from $ 5152.80 billion in 2002 to $ 621.8 billion in 2008-09. Even more worrying thing is that due this fall in the FDI the country’s reserves have gone down to a very low level upon which the future of the country lies. In order to bring stability in the economy Pakistan took structural adjustment program of IMF which has inducted reserves into the country so that the macro economic stability can be brought again. The exchange rate of the country has shot up from 60.5 (Rs/US$) to 84.5 (Rs/US$) which has negative effect on the country’s economy. As due to this depreciation of the country’s currency, it has increased the cost of raw imported material due to which the cost of production has increased in the country. This rising production cost has reduced the price competitiveness of the country’s exports as a result we can see that the exports of the country have gone down. The rising security issue in the country has made the state to spend more on the security related things rather than on development as a result we can see that development spending in the economy has gone down to just 1% of GDP which is lowest ever. This fact is causing large infrastructure shortage in the economy as a result the business momentum in the economy has finished. Large amount of money is being spent on building new institutions to counter terrorism which is why we can see that the amount of productive spending has gone down in the economy. Educational institution along with other areas has been targeted by the terrorists which has increased their spending on security arrangements. We have seen that over the period huge amount of foreign direct investment has gone to India which has made their economy more vibrant and dynamic. It is because of this we can see that despite global recession the Indian economy is moving at around 7 % growth rate compared to Pakistan which has just 2.1% growth rate. The poor condition of the economy can be seen from the fact that with in a period of 3 months of the new democratic government the inflation rate has jumped three folds. This rising inflation is due to the spending on security arrangements, thus increasing the overall cost of production and eventually increase in prices can be seen. Increased security concerns has made foreign investor to be less willing to travel to Pakistan to make business deals as a result we can see that most of the country’s hotels are empty which has a direct cost on the economy. Along with this we have seen that tourism of the country has been seriously affected as according to estimates only less than 1% of people want to visit Pakistan for vacation purpose which is only because of the security threat. This has reduced any chance of foreign income which can be earned through tourism sector. Over all we can see that our economy is facing a great problem which can only be solved once our armed forces finish all the miscreants in the country. Conclusion Terrorism is a great hurdle in our socio-economic prosperity, political stability, geo-strategic sustainability and energy security. Development activities are halt in these areas. The rule of ignorance, stagnation, fanaticism, and destruction is spreading like a wild fire especially in NWFP and FATA. The government should initiate three-pronged policy i.e. dialogue, development and deterrence. Let us hope that our soil will be freed from the terrorism and there will be no more bloodshed in the days to come. References State Bank of Pakistan (SBP)Federal Bureau of Statistics (FBS)Federal Board of Revenue (FBR)www.brecorder.com Socio-economic costs of terrorism with special reference to Pakistan (Mehmood-Ul- Hassan Khan) retrieved from www.ofpblog.com