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Friday March 29, 2024

Economic security as pillar of national security

By Akram Shaheedi
December 11, 2017

Head of PPP Media Cell

Army Chief has hit the right chord when he pointed out in his recent address in Quetta that madrassas have outnumbered the schools where millions of students are being imparted pure religious education that carries no relevance, whatsoever, with the modern knowledge capable of coping with the narrative of development of the modern states . These would-be “moulvis” cannot perform the role in the modern economy due to their lack of knowledge of modern disciplines. He also frankly admitted the present state of attrition as the result of the past mistakes of Generals, Politicians and others without identifying the main contributors, both internal and external, although well known in the public domain.

Lot of water has already flown down the bridge, but that may not give the excuse of ambivalence not to make the resolution to proceed ahead to make a turn around. The process of depredation has to be reversed if we want to exist as a nation worthy of existence. This requires building of bridges within the country and the world at large in general and with neighbouring countries in particular. Pakistan cannot realise its full potential of its God gifted geographical location without the normalisation of relations with its immediate neighbours, Afghanistan, Iran and India. Opposition leader, Syed Khursheed Shah, and indeed all the political leadership, by and large, are in favour of mending fences with the neighbouring countries in order to promote trade and people-to-people contacts. The state institutions may also see wisdom in abandoning the redundant policies of the past and of the present. The history of seventy years of our foreign/security relations bears this out quite clearly. There is no point in reinforcing failures for another seventy years or so. The presence of Pakistani prime minister along with the Iranian president, Afghan president and Indian prime minister at the inauguration of Chabahar port recently would have been welcomed by many Pakistanis. His absence was quite conspicuous.

Pakistani leadership has to demonstrate cascade of strokes of statesmanship over a period of time to embark upon the paradigm shift focused to make its East and West borders peaceful. It is a daunting challenge and requires serious and matching introspection on the part of all the state institutions to figure out a road map with sincerity and commitment because failure is no more affordable. The chances of success of time tested archaic strategy are slim. The looming darkness may be addressed by the enlightened strategic thinking followed by its relentless application. For this, the state institutions may begin with undertaking their responsibilities in manners as defined by the Constitution to facilitate the realisation of national objectives. Observance of the doctrine of Trichotomy of power lies in the heart of functioning of the state institutions. Its non-adherence had been the bane of civil-military relations creating political, economic and security mess of appalling proportion. Squabbling of the state institutions for parochial domination is bound to bring doom. They may instead harness their energies to address the issues of socio-economic backwardness on priority basis that is the mother of all evils now facing the country.

Economic security should be pillar of foreign and security policy as quite rightly maintained by a well -respected economist and educationst of this country. This is proving exceedingly true in the contemporary world where wars or strong arms tactics are fast losing their appeal as instruments to address the issues among the states. Diplomacy has replaced the brinkmanship and the trend is likely to sustain because of people’s aversion to death, destruction and chaos. Peace, reconstruction and order are their preferences because of their indispensability to improve the quality of life of all and sundry.

The narrative of achieving the economic security and foreign policy objectives through the prism of security paradigm has become redundant almost akin to the relic of the past. The primacy of geo-economic interests over the geo-political interests is getting popular among the nations because of its immediate positive bearings on the people of respective countries. The quest for the geo-political interests is terribly slow and highly unpredictable due to their complexities. The strong feelings of the parties based on zero sum game makes the settlement of issues of the nature more problematic. They usually tread carefully amounting to inaction due to the fear of the backlash in their domestic constituencies. Resultantly, neither the geo-political interests come to fruition nor the geo-economic interests are served. Those invariably become the forlorn hope at the altar of the putting the self-defined security interests at the foremost. This clearly defies the cost-benefit analysis because it incurs high cost but does no yield proposition. Its persistent quest will only reinforce the failures time and again. Its movers and shakers’ tunnel vision is bound to end in faux pas. India- Pakistan relations are perfectly allegorical to this doctrine because the issues remained unresolved even after number of decades with trade relations as hostage. The same stalemate may continue unabatedly because the option of military solution is not there after the nuclearisation of the two countries. The resumption of trade ties may not weaken the principled position of the countries. But, the economic dividends for the people of the two countries could be staggering by any stretch of imagination.

Chinese linear march on the trajectory of emerging as a superpower is the scintillating example of the success of the model of giving priority to the geo-economic interests over the geo-political interests without compromising the principled stand. China has disputes with the United States like the South-China Sea, One China Policy, Intellectual Property Rights, currency issues, counterfeiting etc. But these issues have not circumvented the phenomenal growth of trade ties between the two countries and indeed have been expanding with the passage of time purely based on mutual interests. China’s trade with the United States has swollen from $90 billion to $578 billion in 2016, with US deficit $347 billion. The trend is likely to continue because it optimises the win-win situation for the people of the two countries. Similarly the volume of trade between India and China swelled to staggering $90 billion and both countries are committed to realise the full potentials in the field during the years ahead barring their long standing border disputes. This model has proved as an extraordinary success and those who continue to stick to failed model, based on Einstein theory of naivety, will only bring doom for the people and their country.

Pakistan’s policy presents the futile model attributed to policy planner’s fixations thwarting to infuse new dynamism in the foreign policy to turn the tide. Treading on the beaten tracks has been hurting the geo-political interests as well at the end of the day due to the resultant weak economy. Pakistan has no viable foreign policy to settle the long standing disputes between India and Pakistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan, and relations with Iran are also not at the comfort level. The history of the disputes suggests that due to pre-conditions the normalisation of relations remained in rut along with the resumption of trade links as a consequence. The net results hardly surprised because the relations remained mired in cull de sack and may continue during the unforeseeable future as well. This is not the way promote regional cooperation. The application of the same approach to build relations with immediate neighbors and the outside world may not be welcomed because of its incongruity with the interests of other nations. Interests of the nations guide the inter-state relations not the ideological affinities or myths. The leadership of the states those keep the myth close to their state calculations normally remained besieged in the vicious circle of their own making. The international community will be hesitant to reach out to such countries those live in their surreal world. The nations have to move with the international community in tandem for the promotion of their national interests in the best possible manners.

Pakistan is gateway to Afghanistan, Central Asian republics and beyond. India and Afghanistan had been bending backward to get access through Wagha border as this route was the most viable in the context of cost-benefit analysis. Similarly, Afghanistan had been urging the country to make it available uninterrupted transit facilities to boost trade between Afghanistan and the countries of the region. The most of the civilian leadership had been in favour of opening of such transit routes in order to give access to the neighboring countries to promote people to people contacts through the enhanced trade activities. But, our unimaginative and ubiquitous state institutions did not see eye to eye with the civilian leadership and forced the leadership to acquiesce. The fearful political leadership did not have the courage to confront to rectify the situation. So the business as usual had been continuing to the utter disadvantage of the country with economic backwardness spikes visible in the forms of stunted children, millions of educated and uneducated unemployed youth, half the children out of schools, labor and lower middle class leading indecent lives, health and education care are in utter disarray, one third population of the country is not sure of two square meal a day. Is it source of pride? Those who are in- charge may answer these questions as their persistence is ghastly proving crippling self-infliction.

Our neighboring country Afghanistan has been so offended that it has assumed the role of the spokesman of India. It is the utter failure of our foreign and security policy. Afghanistan has made it clear that its joining of the CPEC hinges upon the joining of India. Similarly, Afghanistan has said that it will deny the access to Pakistan through its territory unless Pakistan provides the same facilities to India. Our security and foreign policy has been instrumental in reducing the number of friendly countries and its continuity may force China to seek other alternatives. Wake up and read writing on the wall.

muhammadshaheedi@yahoo.com

Patriotic Baloch people reject terrorism: ISPR

Ag Agencies

ISLAMABAD: Inter-Services Public Relations Director General Major General Asif Ghafoor has said patriotic Baloch people continue to reintegrate voluntarily with mainstream society rejecting foreign-sponsored terrorism in Balochistan.

In a statement he said self-realisation by misled Balochs reflects success of the relentless efforts of civil-military leadership towards ‘Khushal Balochistan’. According to another report, more than 300 Baloch separatist militants have surrendered over the past few months, Pakistani government officials said, after a ceremony to mark the downing of guns and militants’ return to civilian life.

The surrenders are part of government efforts to end a decade-long insurgency in Balochistan by offering amnesties and financial rewards to fighters and commanders to help them re-integrate into the society. In a high-profile ceremony on the lawn of the Balochistan Assembly in Quetta, some 313 militants from three separatist movements handed over weapons to Chief Minister Nawab Sanaullah Zehri. “I will hug all who believe in integrity and sovereignty of Pakistan but will not tolerate (those) who will challenge the writ of the state,” Zehri said at the ceremony Saturday. Pakistani government officials say about 2,000 militants have surrendered over the past 18 months.

In April, the government held a similar ceremony where about 400 militants handed over their guns. The latest ceremony saw surrenders by 143 militants from the Baloch Republican Army (BRA), 125 fighters from the Baloch Liberation Army and 17 from Baloch Liberation Front (BLF), according to officials.