Repeated attacks by US spy planes in different areas of FATA have led to strong concerns among the business community of Karachi and Lahore. Most of them believe that the adverse repercussions of the present instability will start telling on the economy after some time. Pakistan is already going through a phase of acute economic crisis and foreign interventions would deteriorate the situation further. According to many businessmen, the financial meltdown, which had initiated after the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, has come to a point where depletion has reached the stage of dilapidation. Akbar Sheikh, a former chairman of All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA), believes that the people are now no longer concerned about even the interference of US army in FATA. They are only bothered about the price of basic food necessities like rice, pulses and flour, nothing else. The businessmen fear that in times to come, American pressure on the meager economy of Pakistan is going to augment. The recent postponement of a free oil facility worth $ 6 billions that Pakistan was supposed to receive from Saudi Arabia is a manifestation of the overwhelming influence of America on our allies that can help us in this crisis. The time has arrived for Pakistanis to show some understanding of the enormity of challenge they are facing and evolve some sort of national policy to resolve it. -MUHAMMAD SHOAIB SHAKIR, Karachi, via e-mail, September 26.