Pakistan may now be 70 years old but it has always suffered from a case of arrested development. The death of the founder of the nation, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, followed soon after by the as yet unsolved assassination of Liaquat Ali Khan cost us the opportunity to become a functioning republic with a working constitution. History kept repeating itself one way or the other. Democratic leaders would be overthrown, exiled or killed, either at the hands of an unknown assassin or by military dictators. Whatever progress we made would be interrupted. To say that Pakistan is 70 years old may be literally true but as a democracy we are not even half that age. Until 2013, not a single elected government had managed to serve out its term. Before Pakistan was a country, it was an idea – the product as much of thinkers as it is of political leaders. In Jinnah, it had the one person who could combine both. Ever since, we have had imposters claiming for themselves the same stature. Political imposters and puppets from the civilian realm have in fact played the most pernicious role each time this country found itself on the brink.
Jinnah had laid out a vision of a secular Pakistan. This country was created in opposition to the Hindu majoritarian ideas that came to dominate the independence movement. Pakistan would be a country for Muslims but not exclusively. It would provide its sizeable religious minorities with a safe space to participate as equal citizens as the country charted a path towards equitable development. This democratic dream was shattered rather quickly. Beginning with the Objectives Resolution, we strayed from it and paid the price. The rest of Pakistan’s history can be summed up mostly as a series of tragedies. The first two constitutions came under military-bureaucratic rule. The first elections worth the name were held in 1970 – almost 23 years into the country’s creation. Tragically, the achievement was marred by tragedy as the electoral process was not respected. More than half the country was so alienated that we saw a genocidal civil war and cessation. It was a democratic process that had created Pakistan but the democratic process was derailed not long after its inception.
After Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was removed by a coup and was subsequently executed, the Zia dictatorship fanned the flames of sectarianism and extremism to maintain its hold. Much of Pakistan’s current existential struggle against terrorism can be traced to that time. Zia’s Islamisation also created entire networks to produce men who would be ready to fight foreign wars in the name of Islam. In the new circumstances, many such groups turned on their own creators and their own country when their initial job was done. The society we are today, where minorities are persecuted and killed and where a brutal militant insurgency rages, did not appear out of nowhere. It has its roots in our troubled early years and the instability that followed. We are a divided polity. Our true heroes may have been recognised by the Nobel Committee but they are shunned by their own people – but sectarian killers are feted under political patronage. The damage, however, is not limited to social forces. The state’s own infrastructure and organs came to be inspired by anti-democratic ideas and laws which continued to hurt the nascent democracy which was restored after Zia’s death.
Pakistan chose to align with the US, instead of choosing the non-aligned path that many newly sovereign countries had preferred after being freed of colonial shackles. We chose the shackles within the first five years – and Pakistan’s path to development has never been defined in a sovereign way (apart from the Bhutto period) since. The state was riddled with sovereign debt whose impact is clear in every budget. Over 35 percent of national spending goes into debt servicing. This is in addition to the requirement to follow the dictats of international lenders in shaping economic policy. The debt trap became one of the key reasons why Pakistan was unable to achieve true development. Long-term economic dependency was built into the economy. On the foreign front, a petulant India tried to strangle us at birth by withholding our share of the assets from Partition, a tactic it has since repeated countless times using the issue of Kashmir. Instead of becoming two mutually dependent neighbours, the two new countries developed a relationship of animosity. The unresolved question of Kashmir which India has occupied since independence against the wishes of the Kashmiris has been a cause of war between the two countries. There have been political attempts to bypass Kashmir in negotiating peace with India but it has not worked. The lack of internal stability and external goodwill has been one important factor in the failure. Many of the failures to develop cordial relationships with our neighbors are our own. Afghanistan and Iran both remain wary of developing beneficial relationship with us – and we have found ourselves more and more isolated.
There is a growing feeling that a new path needs to be taken but the fear of things again being turned upside down continues to haunt minds. What is required is the development of institutions that can deliver justice, yet narrow self-interest continues to define our politics. The simple interests of the people – security and equality before the law – are nowhere close to being delivered. Freedom of speech has faced an increasing threat from state and non-state actors alike.
Today, at best we can say that we are a resilient people, that surviving 70 years is an achievement in itself. And there is something to that. Hope lies in the people of Pakistan who have fought for a better tomorrow despite the challenges. From those who fought for the country to the millions who migrated, to the activists who have struggled for democracy, to workers and labourers, women, men and children who have stood up for their rights, these are the hundreds and thousands in whom the hope for Pakistan’s future lies. People like the late Abdul Sattar Edhi or the recently deceased Dr Ruth Pfau saw something worth saving in this country and devoted their lives to it. Pakistan stands on the soil of one of the oldest civilisations in the world. We have survived in the face of impossible odds. Now we must decide that survival alone is not enough. The years ahead should be a time for this country that we all love so much to thrive.