Indian Defence Review

Government spokesmen are already sounding despondent over the turn of events and speak about the inability of the regime to annoy religious parties for fear that they will direct their guns at them.9 Portents, thus, point to a repetition of Algeria, Tunisia or Egypt in Pakistan, where government and religious forces are battling it out on the streets and elsewhere, making the ordinary citizen insecure about life and property.

Repudiation of Past

A nation, which denies its past, is condemned to remain rootless for long spells. History and culture cannot be repudiated but this is exactly what the educational system and history books in Pakistan have been doing. They define Pakistan in negative terms and talk of Mughal times, excluding other milestones of history. Aurangzeb is their greatest hero. True identity is sought to be denied and therefore, the question of identity remains unresolved to this day.

Pakistans isolation in the world areas, and the new found general tilt towards India in their attitudes, reinforce these impulses and create a hope that even though seen as a failing state Pakistan will not yet be a failed state.

The Bihari Muslim left behind in Bangladesh after 1971 is no longer recognised to have a right of residence in Pakistan even though he had moved out of the heartland of British India, choosing to live in Pakistan. The Mohajir in Pakistan is demanding to be accepted as the fifth nationalist group because as a Mohajir he feels he has no identity in Pakistan. The Punjabi domination in major sectors of political and economic life of the country makes the Sind his, Pathans and Baluchis focus on their own distinctive characteristics and requirements. They place their own ethnic identity before the Pakistani identity.

The awakened awareness about political, cultural and social identity extends the frontiers of all kinds of volatility in the system, adding to the fragility of the state. Adequate political or democratic institutions are yet to be forged where the grievances could be objectively addressed. Governance is still in a state of experimentation with several models having been tried at one time or another, and found wanting. The military was accepted as the only dependable and stable institution in Pakistan and was earlier given credibility for being an efficient manager.

But the. Hamoodur Rehman Commission report about the 1971 debacle has shattered many of the illusions held by the Pakistanis about their Armed Forces. The report charged the Army Brass with perversions (sexual excesses, debauchery, drunkenness, etc.) and willful subversion of public life and held them directly responsible for the dismemberment of Pakistan.10 The civil society in Pakistan now firmly believes that evils like corruption, obscurantism and mismanagement have made deep inroads into its Armed Forces and that they are no better than a failing political institution.

But the civil society is no longer entirely silent about the aberrations in the Pakistani polity and governance. There is a certain vibrancy in it, which articulates calls for a thorough overhaul of the system. Women and civil rights activists refuse to be silenced. Pakistan’s isolation in the world areas, and the new found general tilt towards India in their attitudes, reinforce these impulses and create a hope that even though seen as a failing state Pakistan will not yet be a failed state. There is much that is still functioning in Pakistan such as its judiciary, bureaucracy, armed forces and media. The overall situation is best summed up in the CIA report, ‘Global Trends: 2015′.

The citizens of Pakistan, thus, seem to be paying a heavy price for the two-nation theory.

“Pakistan will not easily recover from decades of economic and political mismanagement, divisive politics, lawlessness, corruption and ethnic friction. Nascent democratic reforms will produce little change in face of opposition from an entrenched political elite and radical Islamic parties. Further domestic disarray will benefit Islamic political activists who may significantly increase their role in national politics and alter the make up and cohesion of the military, once Pakistan’s most capable institution in a climate of continuing domestic turmoil the Central Government’s control will probably be reduced to the Punjab heartland and the economic hub of Karachi. Pakistan will ‘be more fractious, isolated and dependent on international financial assistance”.11

The report card on Pakistan is not very bright. The citizens of Pakistan, thus, seem to be paying a heavy price for the two-nation theory. The prophets of doom predict a future for Pakistan akin to that of the erstwhile Soviet Union and Yugoslavia. Should such predictions come true, these costs would have been paid in vain.

Notes

1. POT 4th Aug. 2000, Page 3220.
2. Dr Ijaz Nabi, Integrated Report and Summary of Findings, Pakistan India Trade Study, Ministry of Commerce, Govt of Pakistan, Sept. 1996 P. 2, as quoted by Major General Mahmud Ali Durrani (Retd), 'India and Pakistan', The John Hopkins University Foreign Policy Institute, School of Advanced International Studies, Washington, P. 42.
3. Mehdi Masud, Dawn (8/2), as quoted in POT, 16 Feb., Page 899.
4. Rais Mohammad Saleh Azam, 'Where Mountains Move': The Story of Chagai, The Nation 28 May, 2000. The article was also reproduced by The Pakistan Institute for Air Defence Studies.
5. ibid.
6. Arif Jamal, a commenter in News (9/7), as quoted in POT, 4th Aug. 2000, P. 3223.
7. Kalim Bahadur, 'Democracy in Pakistan, Crises and Conflicts, 'HarAnand Publications Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi, 1998 PI 14.
8. Jason N Finkle and Richard W. Gable(ed.s), 'Political Development and Social Change', New York, 1971, P. 643-654.
9. News, (23/9), quoting Minister for Religious Affairs, Abdul Malik Kasi, as reported in POT, 17 July 2000.
10. India Today, 2 Aug 2000, P. 37-38.
11. Quoted by Mehdi Masud, Dawn, (8/2), as reported in POT, 6 March 2001, P. 899.