Fragility status: high-alert

This is how Pakistan is viewed by international institutions: the recently released Fragile States Index (FSI) by the Foreign Policy magazine and The Fund for Peace has placed the country in the top-ten most fragile states around the world.
The countrys position is even worse than Iraq, which has just come out of a major war in the not-so-distant past. Within the region, Pakistans status is only better than that of Afghanistan, which ranks at seven and shares the high-alert status. One wouldn be surprised if international institutional investors continue to remain off-limits, regardless of what is projected by the government in terms of attracting valuable FDI (see BR Research column: Business at bay, dated June 18, 2014).
And this without accounting for recent developments at home: a major internal war against a long-standing armed militia in FATA and the ensuing displacement of thousands of families, political instability rife with a self-proclaimed
evolution, and attacks at international airports in two provincial capitals, one of them also being the commercial capital of the country. The next years rankings have already begun to take a worse position for Pakistan, or so it seems.
While Pakistan fares worst in most indicators (being graded poor in eight, and weak in the remaining four), what is even more worrisome is how the states capacity has deteriorated in fundamental areas such as public services. Overall, the rankings indicate a worsening trend for Pakistan over the last five-year period. A look at the trends in individual indictors over the period reveals deteriorating movements in poverty and economic performance, home-grown violence, and internal conflict. The apparent rise in conflict and competition among local and national leaders only adds misery to what are arguably self-inflicted wounds.
The Fragility States Index, previously known as the Failed States Index and widely cited in policy debates, takes an annual overview of countries and ranks them in terms of stability (or lack thereof). With stability being the catchword, the status is indeed highly alarming not only from domestic and foreign policy perspectives but also from an economic perspective.

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Pakistan

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Current Pressures Assessment: High Alert

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Fragile States Index Score         103 (of 178 coutries)

Fragile States Index Rank        10th (of 178 countries)

Average Indicator Score                  8.6 (Max: 10.0)

YoY Trend                    +0.1 (Unchanged since 2013)

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Source: The Fund for Peace (2014)