Contours of ‘Naya’ Pakistan

We are being assured that in the near future, an entire brigade of opposition politicians will be in prison on charges of high corruption. Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry is even naming names and citing numbers. While the big news this week is the assistance Saudi Arabia is providing to Pakistan, the air is thick with bitter political wrangling.

So much so that Prime Minister Imran Khan, in his address to the nation on Wednesday, which was prompted by his productive visit to Riyadh, diverted from his theme to repeat his warning to the opposition: “Kaan khol kar sun lo..”.

And in the midst of all this sound and fury, little attention is being paid to the state of society, and the deficits that are accumulating in the context of democratic values and practices. We have had no intimations so far of what ‘Naya’ Pakistan will be like in its ideological persuasions. The PTI’s commitment to an open, enlightened and progressive polity is not yet evident.

On the contrary, there seems to be no incentive on the part of this government to correct the distortions and deviations that had been injected into the system in the run-up to the elections. Irrespective of the fact that it may have some sense of guilt that things had worked to its own advantage or, at least, to the detriment of its major contenders, there has to be some clarity about the national sense of direction.

Will Naya Pakistan continue to bear with the retrogressive forces of religious extremism and intolerance? Will it be inclusive and enlightened to create conditions in which a free and rational conversation on all issues is possible? Will there be a conscious and dedicated undertaking to confront anti-democratic, obscurantist elements?

There is ample justification in fighting corruption in monetary matters and promoting efficiency in governance. But social development is equally or even more crucial. All the while that our rulers have struggled to balance their budgets, strengthen what they see as national security and build physical infrastructure, social conditions in the country have continued to decline.

Now, our survival depends on reviewing our priorities and political perceptions. We know where Pakistan figures in the global assessments that relate to social and human conditions. A simple, though unbearably painful, exercise would to be to compare Pakistan with Bangladesh on social indicators, beginning with population.

We have learnt to disregard or suspect these findings but we now have a new and more disturbing reminder in this context. We are familiar with the UNDP’s Human Development Index – and we have constantly figured poorly in this list. There has not been much coverage in the Pakistan media of the Human Capital Index launched at the World Bank-IMF Annual Meetings held in Bali earlier this month. We may only remember that it was there that Asad Umar formally asked for an IMF bailout.

Anyhow, the Human Capital Index measures the amount of human capital that a child born today can expect to attain by age 18, given the risks of poor health and education that prevail in his or her country. This means that the World Bank Group has unveiled a new system to rank countries on their success in developing human capital.

Where do you think Pakistan would stand on this ladder? It’s a shame that we are 134 among 157 – the lowest in South Asia. Afghanistan is at 133, India is at 115 and Bangladesh stands taller at 106. But the lead in South Asia belongs to Sri Lanka at 72.

Given the evidence that we have about the PTI government’s disdain for media freedom and protection of fundamental human rights, we can deduce that it does not have the capacity to comprehend these matters. I do not intend to go into details but would like to quote some words from a letter that envoys of several advanced countries have written to the Pakistan government on the issue of registration of international non-governmental organisations (INGOs).

The envoys of the United States, Canada, Australia, Japan, Norway, Switzerland and the European Union have alleged “lack of transparency” in the registration process of INGOs. The letter has warned that the move could hurt Pakistan’s image as a “partner on human development”, besides undermining confidence of the donors and business community. Another point raised is that Pakistan’s actions against a number of INGOs could “serve as a disincentive for foreign investment”.

Some recent developments would raise concerns about the moral stature of Pakistan in the world. We know that Imran Khan’s first visit to Saudi Arabia had not yielded the desired results. But it was the isolation that Saudi Arabia has felt after the murder of Jamal Khashoggi that, apparently, facilitated the $6 billion bailout packed. Consequently, we are not in a position to snub our benevolent friend.

After the Saudi assistance, we are now seeking a similar package from the UAE. In addition, there is always China. In these alliances, we may drift a bit farther from the Western democracies that generally raise concerns about human rights and democratic freedoms.

Talking about human rights, there was this great news that on Thursday, the UN General Assembly President Maria Fernanda Espinosa announced the winners of the prestigious United Nations Prize in the field of Human Rights. They include our own Asma Jahangir, who died in February this year. This prize is awarded every five years and previous winners included Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela.

This global recognition of a distinguished Pakistani woman also reveals the narrow-mindedness of our rulers. There was no immediate appreciation of this posthumous award at the official level, even though it projects a glowing image of Pakistan. But this irony also illustrates the crisis of Pakistan in terms of its moral, social and intellectual deficiencies.

We live in a country where Malala is generally not admired, despite of all the glory that she has brought to the country. Her campaign for girls’ education and emancipation of women collides with prevalent ideas and she is dismissed as a Western conspiracy.

But there was another Western conspiracy that we fell for hook, line and sinker. We cling to it even when it has lost its validity. In March this year, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman told the Washington Post that the spread of Saudi-funded Wahhabism began as a result of Western countries asking Riyadh to help counter the Soviet Union during the cold war. MBS said that Saudi Arabia was urged to invest in mosques and madressahs in Muslim countries in an effort to prevent encroachment by Soviet Union. The funding now comes from Saudi-based ‘foundations’ rather than from the government.

The writer is a senior journalist.

Email: ghazi_salahuddin@hotmail.com