Impacts of Afghan war on terror on Pakistan
1. Human costs of terrorism for Pakistan
2002 to 2013—18634 attacks,52671 killings, 57344 injured
2. Economic cost of terrorism
3. Foreign Direct Investment Inflows (FDI
4. Internally Displaced People (IDPs)
5. Educational problems
6. Tourism
7. Sports
8. Increased criminal activity
9. Political fallout of terrorism in Pakistan
10. Increase in sectarian violence
11. Pakistan’s national image crisis
12. Drone attacks and targeted killings
13. Target killings
14. The psychological impact of terrorism
15. Ties with international world
16. Present scenario
17. Conclusion
1. Human costs of terrorism for Pakistan
2. Economic cost of terrorism
Though in a news conference at the Ministry of Finance on June 11, 2013, he Minister for Commerce, Mr.Ishaq Dar gave a figure of $125 billion as the economic cost of war for Pakistan. Dar said: ―In his personal opinion, the country had already faced a financial loss of $180 billion in this war.
3. Foreign Direct Investment Inflows (FDI
According to United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) report on FDI in Pakistan, Pakistan has gone from number 74 in 2008 to 100 in 2009 to 110 in 2010 in international ranking to attract FDI.
4. Internally Displaced People (IDPs)
A report published in June 2013 by the International Displacement Monitoring Center (IDMC), claims that around 5 million people have become internally displaced as a result of conflict in the North West of Pakistan since 2004. There are more than 1.1 million IDPs registered as displaced by conflict in the North West and millions are unregistered.
5. Social implications
Loss of infrastructure
Law and order situation
Social unrest
Poverty
Unemployment
Escalating crime rates
6. Educational problems
According to the law enforcement agencies report to the Supreme Court, the militants had destroyed almost 1,030 schools, mostly girls‘ schools, in FATA and KPK but documentary proof suggests that almost 799 schools were destroyed from 2003-2013.
7. Tourism
Pakistan earns around 300 million USD from tourism annually and receives approximately 1 million tourists in Pakistan every year. The World Economic Forum Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index 2013 ranks Pakistan at 122 out of 140 countries based on travel and tourism sector trailing behind Ethopia and Cameroon while it was at 125 in 2011.
8. Sports
Due to increasing militancy, no international cricket team has visited Pakistan since 2009 & Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is constrained to host all its home series at neutral venues in United Arab Emirates, which not only entails reduction in income but also causes increase in expenses. Since the attack, cricket teams of India & Bangladesh have cancelled their scheduled visits to Pakistan which resulted in overall loss of about USD 97 Million to PCB. Loss is sustained in the heads of sale of: Television Rights, Sponsorships & In-stadia rights, Radio broadcasting, SMS and Audio Streaming Rights, Gate Money etc. As a result of hosting its homes series at neutral venue, PCB is incurring additional expenditure of about USD 1.4 Million per series.
9. Increased criminal activity
10. Political fallout of terrorism in Pakistan
To give an insight into the increasing level of political violence, one can see that during January-May 2013, about 298 political leaders/political activists and workers were killed
11. Increase in sectarian violence
12. Pakistan’s national image crisis
In the survey, terrorism and crime topped the list of problems facing Pakistan today with more than nine-in-ten Pakistanis rating them as very big problems
13. Drone attacks and targeted killings
14. Target killings
15. The psychological impact of terrorism
Psychological problems among next generations
War trodden area
No hope for settled area
More terrorist activities, more the terrorists would become
Conclusion
Generally, one of the worst impacts of the war on terror on the Pakistani society has been that religious intolerance has become rampant; people have taken the law in their hands, weaponization is common, people have turned against anti-state and law enforcement agencies, including the military for wreaking this tyranny on the people. Military operations and drone strikes are highly unpopular. Also, the fact that most of the security forces, including police and rangers are diverted to provide security and are on protocol duty with politicians and government institutions and are unavailable to the public makes the situation worse. The list of public grievances runs long. The issue of missing persons --- those who were suspected detainees, and many of them still missing have not returned to their homes, still lingers on. This is the unpleasant baggage that the present government is saddled with and needs to resolve. Pakistan has faced and will face the effects of terrorism in the future internally and in its foreign policy. With the probable withdrawal of the international forces from Afghanistan by the end of 2014, Pakistan needs to weigh the impacts of terrorism in the last decade and devise a policy to tackle terrorism and factors exacerbating it. Though most of the impacts of terrorism on Pakistan are negative but there are positive effects that could accrue from the war against terrorism. These include the basic realization for greater self sufficiency, Reform in and integration of FATA, strengthening democratic institutions, de-weaponisation of the society, revamping of foreign policy, regional cooperation by trading and energy pipelines, normalization with India and greater cooperation with Iran and managing relations with US. After all, politics and war against terrorism are correlated and nations earn some lessons from economic and political stressful times. In short, terrorism is surely the biggest menace and curse that Pakistan faces today. The sooner we realize the gravity of this problem and develop a national and public consensus on defeating terrorism and identifying the enemies in this regard, the better. Otherwise the snowball of terrorism will destroy us.
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