ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- During such a tumultuous week, it might be expected that people here were preoccupied by the U.S. missile attack in neighboring Afghanistan. After all, dozens of Pakistanis were among those killed in the barrage that fell on what the United States says were terrorist training camps.

But this is not the case, for people in Pakistan have concerns far more immediate.
The world's newest nuclear power also has one of the world's worst credit ratings, and with the possibility of default looming on its $30 billion foreign debt, Pakistan's economy is quickly coming unspooled. Many people here, whether pundits or politicians or shopkeepers, say they believe that the government itself may unravel next.

With confidence in Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in a seeming free fall, it is common to hear predictions that something dramatic is about to occur, though people are at a loss to suggest what that might be. They refer to what has happened elsewhere: social unrest in Indonesia; the emergence of theocratic states in Iran and Afghanistan. They mention a familiar staple of Pakistan's past: the military takeover.

"If this is an economic meltdown, as many say, Pakistanis who have stashed money away overseas -- or who have relatives living overseas -- are likely to leave," said Abida Hussain, a former ambassador to the United States and now a member of Sharif's Cabinet. "The institutional framework of government, already so stressed out, might come under unbearable pressure. Radical religious elements would try to profit off this.

"At the same time, people ask if the military would take over. I'll quote the answer given me by a young officer who is my friend. I asked him, 'Do you guys have the guts to impose military rule?' And he said: 'Of course, we do. But what would we get out of it but a lot of criticism?' The military's choices are no less grim than the government's."

As usual, those with the grimmest of choices are the nation's poor. Abdul Khaliq, 35, is a barber in the working-class city of Rawalpindi, near Islamabad, Pakistan's ornamented capital. "The feudal landlords and politicians have looted our country until there is nothing more to loot and they leave us with nothing but our poverty," he said.

Khaliq's barber shop is an 8-by-8-foot room with a single chair. Electrical wires, frayed as old rope, hang from the ceiling. He has halved the price of a haircut to about 33 cents, but customers seldom venture inside. "They have no money," he said.

Next door is a tiny vegetable stand run by Mohammad Farooq, 42. His shelves are stocked with only small amounts of ginger, tomatoes and cabbage. People have been buying much less these last few weeks. The price of onions has doubled. Potatoes have tripled.

"What is a man to do in a country like Pakistan, get a rifle, kill yourself, kill your family, kill someone else?" he said angrily. "My wife has pains in her ear. Medicine helps, but I have no money for medicine. I tell her she must live with the pain."

_{(The article "Poor Face Grim Choices as Pakistan's Economy and Government Unravel" was written by Barry Bearak, published and copyrighted by The New York Times on August 30, 1998. Photo credit to Agence France-Presse)}