"Pakistan turns to ‘friends’ in its hour of need; Nation faces financial ruin and military defeat
.... Pakistani officials are in Abu Dhabi today to ask for billions of dollars from Britain and 11 other “Friends of Democratic Pakistan” to help to save their nation from economic collapse and military defeat by Islamist insurgents.
The meeting comes just two days after Pakistan agreed to a loan of $7.6billion from the International Monetary Fund - a humiliating climbdown for Asif Ali Zardari, the country's new President.
Pakistani officials say they are over the worst of a crisis that has brought them within days of defaulting on foreign debt repayments and which has threatened to derail a military campaign against Taleban and alQaeda militants on the Afghan border....
Yet the IMF bailout falls far short of what officials and economists estimate the country of 165 million people needs to stay afloat economically - and continue the costly fight against the militants....
Pakistani officials estimate that they may need $15 billion over the next two years to service foreign debt and pay for imports, especially oil, and the campaign against the militants. They expect the World Bank and other international agencies to add to the IMF's $7.6 billion. But Mr Zardari hopes that the rest will come from the “Friends”: Britain, the United States, China, Saudi Arabia, Japan, France, Germany, Italy, Australia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, the United Nations and the European Union....
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Those are their "friends?" No wonder the "militants" are winning.
