INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Pakistan's five biggest post-election challengesISLAMABAD: The next government in Pakistan will face myriad
challenges from unsustainable population growth to simmering extremism.No matter who is voted into office on July 25, the new rulers will
improved across Pakistan following a military crackdown in recent years.However analysts have long warned that Pakistan is not getting to
the root causes of extremism, and that the militants can still carry out spectacular attacks -- an ability they demonstrate
periodically.That includes during this campaign, with a string of bombings at political events killing 175 people, including the second
government faces growing fears of a balance of payments crisis, with speculation mounting it will have to seek its second IMF bailout in
five years.The central bank is burning through foreign reserves and devaluing the rupee, including another five-percent dive this week, in a
bid to bridge a widening trade deficit
Pakistan, which has long relied heavily on imports, increased its procurement of materials to help build a string of Chinese-backed
for it.The economy has also been stung by higher oil prices.Meanwhile, meagre exports such as textiles have taken a hit from cheaper
Chinese-produced goods, while foreign remittances have also slowed.The winners of the election will have "limited time" to act, Fitch
birth rates in Asia at around three children per woman, according to the World Bank and government figures.That has led to a fivefold
economic and social progress in the developing country, experts have warned.To add to the problem, discussing contraception in public is
address looming water shortages, experts say.Official estimates show that by 2025 the country will be facing an "absolute scarcity" of
water, with less than 500 cubic metres available per person -- just one third of the water available in parched Somalia, according to the
UN.Pakistan has massive Himalayan glaciers, rivers, monsoon rains and floods -- but just three major water storage basins, compared with
more than a thousand in South Africa or Canada
As such, surplus water is quickly lost
Political initiative will be essential to building infrastructure to reverse the course of the impending crisis
There is also little in the way of education on water conservation.
