A tough war follows

Pakistan has shown it can stand its own against India as far as military activity goes. The Pakistan military and its media, which adopted a far more balanced stance compared to its Indian counterparts, have both given something to the nation to be proud of. But we must remember that many other battles must be fought and won for the country's and its people's sake. Real security, after all, lies in giving the people enough strength to make them secure and able to live lives of a reasonable quality. In this, Pakistan has not been successful.

The latest Human Development Report from the UN, released in May this year, ranks Pakistan 168th out of 193 countries on its Human Development Index. This is a four-place drop from last year, when Pakistan stood at 164th place. The HDI is essentially measured by three factors: health, knowledge and standard of living. Pakistan has clearly failed to thrive in these areas.

This is especially true when we compare its performance to its neighbours. Bangladesh, for example, stands at 129th on the list and India at 130th. In this, we are losing to all of South Asia and almost all of Asia as well. Pakistan is ranked as a country of low human development, along with a few other nations, mainly in sub-Saharan Africa. Most of the other countries around the globe have reached levels of medium development at the least, including all of those in South Asia and most in other countries. Countries in the developed world stand as nations ranked for high growth in terms of their people's situation and the state's ability to provide them with their basic needs.

There are exceptions to this. Cuba is ranked at 85th on the list and is a country with high human development. This is a considerable achievement for a country which has faced decades of harsh sanctions led by the US and its allies. But it has faced an even harder time since the fall of the Soviet Union, its chief ally, in 1991. Even so, Cuba has been able to give its people a better standard of living than most other countries in the same economic category as itself. This somewhat puts into question the idea that communist countries inevitably fail as far as economic realities are concerned. Other nations like the autocratic Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan and a whole list of other nations in places around the world, with relatively limited economic means, are also well ahead of Pakistan and are ranked as countries with high development.

This, then, is a war that we all need to take up. This is a war that deserves the same attention that the fighter jets and drones that made up the relatively short conflict between India and Pakistan deserve. Our leaders and the nation as a whole need to pay attention. We need much more publicity and much more attention to the problems of our people so that we can find ways of solving these issues.

The problem is obviously not an easy one to resolve. But we need to look at how Bangladesh achieved quite remarkable success, notably after 1971 when the state was born as a result of a bloody civil war, before which it had been deprived of a due share of resources by the united state of Pakistan. Bangladesh adopted innovative policies and put in a great deal of will into lifting its people out of poverty. While vast poverty exists in India, it is also ahead of Pakistan in solving the economic crisis of people and putting them on a ladder where they can climb their way towards possible success in the coming years. We need to study these examples and also look further afield both to East Asia and to countries in Latin America and the African states, which on the map are painted in colours which show them as countries of medium or high development rather than the grey which depicts Pakistan as one of the few countries still in the low development category.

All the institutes of state must combine forces, along with people, to discover how we can climb our way out of low development and give all our people, no matter where they live, what they do, a better quality of life. This is imperative in a country where at least one-third of the people hover around the poverty line or live below it. Others are falling into this category rapidly, since even though inflation has stopped to some degree over the past few years, people do not feel the impact of this.

Pakistan needs to take note of the UN Human Development Report's suggestion that artificial intelligence should be seen not as an enemy of jobs but as a tool that can help people get to better places and to a higher quality of life. Other reports and analyses by economists and sociologists have noted that Pakistan has the potential to use its energy and technology to move ahead in areas that can help it use AI more effectively and help its people. This is important in a world where things are changing so rapidly that we can barely keep pace with them.

Pakistan must find a way to keep pace and move ahead at a rapid rate. For this, it needs both technology and innovative strategies, as well as most importantly, the full power and will of governments at all levels, whether they operate at the federal, provincial or district levels. There can be nothing that can prevent development if this effort and will is put in. This has to be done given that we cannot continue to hold out our hand and ask for funds every few years or fall into a crisis which forces us to the doors of the IMF or to seek assistance from our friends around the globe.

We need to be able to stand alone as a country with plenty of resources. We also need to make our people strong and give them the security of life that they so badly need. Next year, we must plan to see Pakistan stand higher on the HDI and to move ahead so that it can stand closer to neighbours in South Asia and show that it is capable of winning on all fronts as a nation with a huge youth population which can give the country a great deal if the resources it brings are used properly and with good strategy.

The writer is a freelance columnist and former newspaper editor. She can be reached at: kamilahyat@hotmail.com