'IMF lending - Pakistan vs Egypt'

This is apropos a Business Recorder op-ed "IMF lending - Pakistan vs Egypt" carried by the newspaper on Saturday. While drawing some interesting parallels between the two countries the writer, Farhat Ali, has conveniently ignored some key facts with regard to the two Islamic countries. We all know that both the countries have different histories and different needs. Not only is the size of Egypt's economy greater than Pakistan's, there is also a vast difference between the populations of the two countries; Egypt's is half of Pakistan's. Around 10 million Egyptians live overseas. Remittances sent by them constitute a highly important source of income for Egypt.