News Views : Pakistan ranks 10th among 'failed States'

Source: Dawn

Dated:  June 22, 2010

 

WASHINGTON, June 21: Pakistan was ranked the 10th most failed state in the world, just three places below Afghanistan, in a US survey released on Monday.

 

Somalia tops the 2010 Failed States Index followed by Zimbabwe, Sudan, and Chad.

The index issued by the prestigious Foreign Policy magazine and the Fund for Peace, a Washington-NGO, ranks India 87th in a list of 177 countries.

 

Burma has been placed at 13. Sri Lanka is ranked 22 and Nepal 25. China is at 57th place.

 

Norway is ranked the world’s most stable country and is at the bottom of the list.The Untied States is ranked 158 but is not among the 10 most stable countries.

 

The report notes that Pakistan has more than once been described as the world’s most dangerous country. Its wild northern reaches remain host to various branches of the Pakistani Taliban and Al Qaeda.

 

More than 3 million Pakistani civilians were displaced by “counterinsurgency” operations in 2009 — the larg est single movement of people since the Rwandan genocide.

 

“President Asif Ali Zardari’s democratically elected government looks hapless — unable to gain any measure of civilian control over a nuclear-armed military … or an intelligence service that stands accused of abetting the Afghan Taliban,” observes the Foreign Policy magazine.

 

Social Indicators Pakistan is the world’s seventh-most populous country, with a population density of over 226 people per kilometre. The country has a moderate youth bulge; the average age is 21 and over 37 per cent of Pakistanis are under 15 years of age.

 

Pakistan has historically been home to vicious political battles between rival parties, as well as consistent conflicts within the tribal regions and in Balochistan. Pakistan suffers from a significant brain drain.

 

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Thanks and Regards,

Roohi Bano