Contradicting a number of previous year’s political forecasts, 2015 ushered in a fairly positive sentiment in Pakistan. As armed operations successfully struck at the roots of lawlessness, many unexpected milestones followed in the country desperately searching for a stable footing.
A renewed era for sports in Pakistan dawned as International cricket, after a six year long absence, returned to the grounds at Lahore’s Qaddafi Stadium. Pakistan’s Twenty-20 series against Zimbabwe showed the world the country was safe for sports and could protect its guests well.
At the political front, the government finally heeded to the calls for investigations into alleged rigging in 2013 polls, leading to re-elections in numerous constituencies.
 Internal cleansing
As the year 2014 closed with the tragic overhang of the Peshawar school attack, security forces began 2015 with a much stronger resolve to deal with militancy. The country’s security flourished as the fighter jets partaking in Zarb-e-Azb wiped out hundreds of terrorists in the troubled North Waziristan Agency and surrounding Tribal Areas. Combating action, meant to send an in-your-face kind of response to recent terror attacks, restored civilian confidence in armed forces, as well as the political government.
In the country’s south, the clearance operation in Karachi continued unhindered, restoring order and peace to the financial capital. The revival of peace brought back hundreds of families that had fled to safer cities back to Karachi, and the dividends of peace started sprouting. Real estate prices started surging again as industries picked pace and residential demand rose in the city of lights. Overall Karachi saw a 35.53% increase in prices for properties in the 12-month period, according to property web portal Zameen.
While authorities scrubbed crime and terror from the streets of Karachi, plenty of infrastructural development also came Punjab’s way. But perhaps the greatest development of the year was promised for the unruffled Gwadar city and the province of Balochistan.
A major milestone was achieved in the restive province when the authorities expressed willingness to hold talks with separatist Balochi leaders, a sentiment responded to positively in August. Lets hope the process gathers further momentum this year.
The bigger picture
Six-months down the year, Pakistan made news world-wide for closing a major deal with long-time ally China. The $46 billion deal (Beijing’s biggest foreign investment yet) for China-Pakistan Economic Corridor will see a major development project build roads, railways and freight lines across Pakistan in order to give the Chinese direct access to sea routes for trade through Gwadar. The city is now looking at an era of abundant prosperity given its location and importance to the project.
The Pak-China Friendship Tunnels in Attabad in the north were also inaugurated soon after Chinese President Xi JinPing announced the project while visiting Pakistan. The ripples of country’s bloom travelled across borders as Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif inaugurated the 24-km long portion of Karakoram Highway in September, 2015 as part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project.
The visit of Indian PM Modi to Pakistan in December perhaps the cherry on the cake for Pakistan’s diplomatic efforts. Earlier in November, a short clip of Modi and Nawaz conversing went viral on the internet for millions were surprised at the unexpected gesture between head of states of traditional rivals countries. Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj’s trip followed soon, making it the first time since 2012 that an official India-Pakistan meeting took place.
Another positive in the year was Russia’s increasing interest in Pakistan. Russia alleviating restrictions to provide defense arsenal to Islamabad forecast a possible cordiality between the two countries that seemed to have not moved on since the Cold War.
In retrospect, it is safe to say that Pakistan made strides, both at the global and regional fronts. Domestic peace was but vital in propelling this wind of change and projected political stability does not seem such a far-fetched concept for now.
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