Shakes Pakistan By Hilda Cuzco, in the Militant, Vol. A ballooning budget deficit, soaring unemployment, rising foreign debt, and default on loan payments to the International Monetary Fund underline a steep economic downturn in Pakistan.
Opposition groups succeed in unleashing a wave of anti-austerity protests against the government.
Political instability in neighboring Afghanistan raises prospects of new waves of refugees crossing the border into the country. Tensions and possibility of new military confrontations rise between Islamabad and New Delhi over control of Kashmir. These events were the political backdrop to the November 5 decision by Pakistani president Farooq Leghari to dismiss Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and dissolve the National Assembly. The president named Malik Meraj Khalid, once a Bhutto family ally, as caretaker prime minister and announced elections for February 3. In Washington, the Clinton administration has not made immediate comments on Bhutto's dismissal.