Pakistan’s economy is facing virtual “stagflation”. The term is defined as a lack of economic activity due to an economic slowdown, which creates massive unemployment and joblessness combined with rising inflation.

It is a double-edged sword for the poor and deprived. It often results in a rise in crime and suicides, which is what we are seeing in today’s Pakistan.

The double-digit inflation has become a serious problem for the south Asian country where up to 40 per cent of its 170 million population lives below poverty line. The inflation, which has risen to 16 per cent, is pushing more people below the poverty line in the absence of any significant economic activity.

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Interestingly, China is exploiting the world’s largest untapped deposits of copper under a security cover being provided by the US and Nato forces in the turbulent border areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan. China has already taken control of copper and gold deposits at Saindak and Aynak in Pakistan and Afghanistan, respectively.

China’s thirst for strategic mineral deposits to fuel its growing economy does not end here. Chinese companies are currently competing with Canada’s Barrick Gold and Chile’s Antofagasta to get a mining licence for Reko Diq, the world-class copper and gold mine in Balochistan’s Chagai district.

While the US wages a war on extremists in the region, China is engaged in a resource war. The US attacked Afghanistan in October 2001. In September 2002, state-owned Metallurgical Corp of China (MCC) acquired the Saindak copper project in Balochistan on lease for a period of 10 years.

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