‘Pakistan unfortunately a security state since decades’

Islamabad: Pakistan has unfortunately not progressed from being a security state, towards creating a welfare state edifice, says a press release.

This was stated by former chief minister Balochistan Dr Abdul Malik Baloch, while addressing a round-table on National Cohesion organised at the Islamabad Policy Research Institute (IPRI) here “Issues such as why has the voter and parliament not been empowered to this day, and whether our constitutional approach should be premised on August 11, 1947, speech of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah or the Objective Resolution have not been addressed”, the former CM said.

Dr Malik observed that foreign policy needs to be geared towards the objective of creating a liberal & welfare state to promote national cohesion, where ‘all entities of federation have stakes in a people centred polity’. Islamabad Policy Research Institute organised a round-table discussion on a series of presentations that were catalogued from grand national dialogues and seminars on the theme of ‘National Identity and Cohesion.’ The report was put up for internal debate before its presentation to relevant committees.

Former chief minister Balochistan Dr Abdul Malik Baloch, former governor Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan Owais Ahmed Ghani and Dr Farhan Hanif Siddiqi, Associate Professor, School of Politics and International Relations, Quaid-i-Azam University, were the main panellists who dwelled into the recommendations of the report and came up with their concrete proposals, accordingly. The round-table was conducted by Director Research IPRI, Brig (r) Dr Raashid Wali Janjua, and Ambassador (r) Asif Durrani, senior research fellow IPRI.

The discussion dwelt threadbare into the broader themes such as alleviation of socio-economic disparities, equitable distribution of resources, separating politics from developmental projects, engaging students across the board and providing for social security programs. The report also talks at length about the need to uphold constitutional supremacy by all pillars of the state and not to interfere in others’ domain. For this purpose, the need for setting up an Independent Constitutional Court, introduction of proportional representation, empowering the Senate of Pakistan and broadening the concept and powers and role of the local bodies’ was underscored.

Aspects such as governance deficit in Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir were also discussed and, likewise, the need for ‘Cooperative Federalism’ was highlighted in an endeavour to do away with trust deficit in body politick. The report also touch-based over critical issues such as ‘Masjid Reforms’, rather than Madrassa reforms, as it was argued that clergy wields more powers in the religious institutions system, and thus society can be better reformed by tapping their synergies

for public good.