Pakistan 2024: Troubled ties with neighbours, economic woes and Imran Khan

Pakistan was haunted by political uncertainty, economic instability, a deteriorating security situation and troubled relations with neighbours in 2024. But what defined the year were not just these perennial ills but the country's inability to tackle incarcerated former prime minister Imran Khan.

Amid political turbulence, Pakistan hosted a Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) conclave, which was also attended by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar -- the first high-ranking Indian minister in nearly a decade to visit Islamabad amid frosty ties between the two neighbours.

The last Indian foreign minister to visit Pakistan was Sushma Swaraj. She had travelled to Islamabad to attend the 'Heart of Asia' conference on Afghanistan in December 2015.

In his address at the SCO event, Jaishankar said, "If friendship has fallen short and good neighbourliness is missing somewhere, there are surely reasons to introspect and causes to address."  He also said if activities across borders are "characterised" by terrorism, extremism and separatism, they are hardly likely to encourage trade, energy flows and connectivity in parallel.

His remarks were seen as directed towards Pakistan, which has troubled relations with all its neighbours.

If the year began with Iran conducting missile strikes within Pakistan in January, targeting Baloch militants, it ended with Pakistan carrying out airstrikes in Afghanistan, killing at least 46 people, including women and children, according to Afghanistan's Taliban government. Pakistan says the target was militants.

Pakistan witnessed a series of terror attacks, particularly in troubled Balochistan and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa provinces in 2024, among the toughest years for its security forces.

According to the details shared with Parliament by the interior ministry, 924 people were killed and 2,121 injured in 1,566 terrorism incidents in the first 10 months of the year. At least 573 dead and 1,353 injured belonged to law enforcement agencies, including the army.

On the economic front, Pakistan was on the verge of default in 2022 and only averted it due to the timely intervention by the International Monetary Fund.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif takes credit for pulling the country back from the brink of bankruptcy and turning around the economy.

In 2024 inflation came down to single digits, policy rates reduced from 22.5 to 15 per cent, foreign exchange reserves improved, and the stock market made record gains.

But it was jailed former prime minister Imran Khan who often hogged the headlines.

In the elections in February, independent candidates backed by Khan's party surprised everyone by winning more than 100 out of the 226 seats in a hung parliament.

And then the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz threw in a surprise, nominating Shehbaz Sharif as the prime ministerial candidate instead of the party supremo and three-time former premier Nawaz Sharif.