As another Independence Day ticks by, Pakistan stays precariously poised. The legitimacy of its dysfunctional democratic system lies disputed amid swirling political uncertainties and nervy civil-military relations. Its armed forces are engaged in a daunting operation against non-state actors abusing its territorial sovereignty and threatening its internal stability as well as global peace and security. Sectarianism and sectionalism continue corroding its national fabric. The geopolitical situation in its neighborhood remains fraught with unknowns. It is racked by double-digit unemployment and double-digit inflation as it grapples with a crippling energy crisis and a crumbling economic infrastructure. Its education and health sectors require urgent restructuring. It has yet to undertake sweeping legal and administrative reforms tailored to enable rule of law.
Crucially, though, our present unraveling is not hostage to some inescapable cycle of history. Our future, hence, very much remains a matter of will and willpower, in the sense of critical choices to be made about policy and strategy and expressing the right aspects of ourselves to the world. Moreover, an ascent of constitutional and humanist values, so finely articulated by our founding father in his maiden address to the Constituent Assembly on August 11, 1947, could light our way forward.
Certain hard choices will have to be made in the years ahead to correct our course. At a minimum, this would entail taking bold and imaginative steps to normalize relations with our neighbors on honorable terms, and pursuing a smartly executed and determined strategy to uproot the hydra-headed forces of extremism and terrorism.
[quote]We have had our days in the sun[/quote]
All this, of course, presumes visionary and transcendent leadership along with all the state organs operating within their respective constitutional spheres.
Previously, we have had our days in the sun. The irrepressible efforts of our founding generation to keep the newly independent state intact when many had written its obituary are haloed in our national consciousness. The 1960s stand out as the ‘decade of development.’ That was also when PIA was pioneering global commercial aviation with its polished crew globetrotting in Christian Dior suits and President John F Kennedy was hosting grandiose state banquets for President Ayub Khan at George Washington’s Virginia home. It has not been many moons since we mediated ties between the United States and China that transformed the complexion of the Cold War. Our resilience and resolve to acquire nuclear capability reflects the triumph of our national will over unrelenting adversity.
As we flail around our present troubles, however, we must acknowledge that they are largely of our own making and that only we can now unclench ourselves from them. Pretending to be the perennial bogeyman of an illusory international conspiracy will not reverse our rot. The global community is in fact compelled by self-interest to prevent instability in a nuclear armed Pakistan with teeming population. However, given the geopolitical realities and a history of perpetual let downs by our ‘friends’ in prior moments of national despair, we can’t, and shouldn’t, overly rely on our allies or the rest of the world to bail us out of our current tribulations.
A PIA advertisement from the 60s
To integrate ourselves in today’s global market economy, we should redefine our international relations in broader and freer economic and trade terms under the firm assumption that our national security is directly tied to economic prosperity. Relative state power in today’s international system is no longer about substituting guns for butter in a zero-sum bargain but about bundling national security with economic growth.
A growing middle class youth population could be a crucial driver of our future. Successful nations and societies are those that find ways to sustain the dynamism of their youth. To that end, we should carefully harness our youth’s intellectual capital. A globally competitive workforce will never materialize under our prevailing dilapidated and archaic education system, which must be immediately overhauled to groom well-rounded critical thinkers and problem solvers, unscarred by a tampered and self-serving narrative of our history and faith.
The litany of problems we face at the moment is seemingly endless and intractable. Collectively, they point to a free falling state of sharp national decline. But hasn’t dealing with adversity been a constant thread in our history from the bloody wounds of a hasty and inequitable colonial division to our existing concerns?
It is our resilience, natural strengths, societal robustness and ability to overcome adversity in the past that generate guarded hope about extricating ourselves from our current woes.
The writer is a lawyer. He can be reached at as2ez@virginia.edu
