Beyond a few negative headlines, Pakistan\'s economy is on the rise

Look beyond the headlines and see Pakistan today. It boasted the best stock market in Asia in 2016. The high-flying Karachi Stock Exchange Index is up more than 52 per cent over the past year - and rising.  The exchange broke through the vaunted 50,000 mark last month - a first in history. What's more, Pakistan is winning plaudits from the International Monetary Fund, and its economy is forecast for a healthy 5.2 per cent growth rate in 2017, according to the World Bank.
Three key factors are driving Pakistan's economic awakening: an improved security climate, relative political stability and a growing middle class. These three interlocking pieces are fueling Pakistan's growth story - a vital story given the size and geopolitical weight of the nuclear-armed South Asian nation of nearly 200 million people.
In mid-May, the world's largest research-based provider of index funds, MSCI, will officially "graduate" Pakistan from its frontier-market category to the more prestigious - and well-capitalized - "emerging market" index. It will join 23 other countries on the index that represents 10 percent of world capitalization.
In 2013, when Nawaz Sharif was elected, it marked the first democratic transition of power. Sharif entered office as the great global transformation taking place worldwide - of technological connectivity, rapid urbanization and rising middle class consumption - continued to churn. And Pakistan has not missed that train.
Robust middle classes are vital to healthy societies and growing economies, and Pakistan's middle class may have reached a tipping point, with some estimates suggesting that it accounts for more than half the population. Brookings Institution scholar Homi Kharas argues that Pakistan's consumer middle-class market could hit $1 trillion by 2030.
These middle classes are also attracting foreign investment. Ishrat Husain, former governor of the State Bank of Pakistan, stated that middle classes are driving impressive 25 per cent rates of return for large multinational consumer companies such as Nestle and Procter & Gamble, and that the middle-class growth is sparking increased production of cement, steel, automobiles and the like. He sees it as one of the key reasons for current bullishness on Pakistan.
That bullishness has led Pakistan to enter the emerging-markets acronym vernacular. One of the latest post-BRICS acronyms of rising economies making the rounds: VARP, for Vietnam, Argentina, Romania and Pakistan. Yes, Pakistan.
The biggest test of whether Pakistan's government can deliver might be something more simple: Will the lights stay on? Pakistan has an electricity problem. The country has long had electricity shortages with widespread rolling blackouts plaguing both urban and rural areas. In fact, Nawaz Sharif made expanding electricity access a major campaign promise.
Enter China. Pakistan's giant neighbor has pledged a whopping USD 54 billion programme to build the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor that will build new highways, overhaul railway and create new infrastructure to support 10,000 megawatts of additional power.
If Pakistan succeeds in taming its electricity gaps with China's help, the virtuous circle of growth will continue, and a key South Asian, nuclear-armed power could be headed for a decade of normalcy. If this materialises, that would be a big relief to the international community in dire need of countries of Pakistan's size to begin delivering more for their people.