Ahmed Rashid says Pakistan is “in a downward spiral towards becoming a failed state”.
Note his comments about foreign policy. While the foreign policies of the US are (rightfully) lambasted, what tended to be glossed over were the foreign policies of Muslim countries like Pakistan and Saudi Arabia:
Promising democracy, economic development, moderation and an end to training jihadi fighters who had become the army’s front line in projecting [Pakistan's] foreign policy and fuelling the wars in Afghanistan and the insurgency in Indian-administered Kashmir, in reality the military continued to pursue the same old games.
By allowing the growth of Islamic extremism and the mushrooming of thousands of new madrassas in the country, the military considered economic and political stability an afterthought.
