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Tuesday, August 3

"Common Pakistanis are the sole victims of this state-sponsored pillage"

Using the debacle of the country's once-great railway system as illustration, Pakistani free-lance journalist and activist Saad Khan sketches a portrait of the corruption and climate of fear that is Pakistan. And speaking of the devil, Khan mentions the dreaded 'transportation mafia,' which I'd briefly returned to in my earlier post today. My only quibble with Khan's observations are that the 'common' Pakistani is not the only victim of the regime. This is what your tax dollars, euros, and pounds are propping up, every time Pakistan gets an IMF bailout or Western aid. Meanwhile Pakistan's poor get poorer. Kudos to Huffington Post for featuring Khan's very informative report -- and note the part about China dumping junk on the country.

While it stays far away from corruption issues, Foreign Policy's Pakistan's infrastructure, which looks at the country's electiricty and water crises, makes a good companion read to Khan's report.

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