Pakistan needs to spend money on people’s welfare, says Hoodbhoy

At a session titled ‘the never-ending battle for the Pakistan narrative’ on the inaugural day of the Adab Festival at the Karachi Arts Council on Friday, nuclear scientist and academic Pervez Hoodbhoy said that “we [Pakistan] need to become a normal state”.

Normal countries, he said, worked for the betterment of their citizens; they did not necessarily have an ideology which they fight for. “We too need to become a normal country,” he added.

“Bangladesh – our poor cousin – is doing better than us in economy. They don’t have an ideology like we are believed to have,” he asserted.

Making the formation of Bangladesh a case study, the nuclear scientist questioned the idea of the formation of national identity on the basis of religion. Had religion been a unifying force which could form a national identity, he said, Pakistan would not have been broken into two parts.

For former foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar, the division of ‘good Muslims’ and ‘bad Muslims’ had been a haunting problem in Pakistan.

She said the formation of identity should not be on the basis of hatred. A generation was consumed in hatred for countries declared enemies, she added.

“Trying to appease an extremist minority is the worst a state can do,” she asserted. “From my experience,” Rabbani said, “I am telling you that no one can put you in pressure to do what you don’t want to do in your national interest.”

The former foreign minister said she grew up listening to talk “about the importance of the geo-strategic location of Pakistan”. But, she said, it’s time for some introspection; it’s time we reflected that if Pakistan had been successful in achieving the benefits from the significance of its geo-strategic location.

Rabbani advised the rulers to make friends with their neighbours and other countries. “We all love to hate the US, but we all love to be loved by the US,” she commented.

Speaking on the occasion, former Pakistani ambassador to US Najmuddin Shaikh said Pakistan was created out of the fear that the Hindu majority in the subcontinent would impose their will on the Muslims of South Asia.

In his opinion, religion should not be the business of the state, but since the majority of population in Pakistan is Muslim, it is therefore inevitable that the majority’s way of life would prevail in society.

He, however, expressed concerns over “the increasing incidents of religious intolerance” which were tantamount to shattering the vision of the father of the nation, the Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, who promised to ensure the rights of all citizens – belonging to all casts and creeds – in Pakistan.

He said the rulers were supposed to improve the image of the country so the country could progress and get rid of long-pending problems, one being its placement on the grey list of the Financial Action Task Force.

British historian and academic Francis Robinson, who specialises in the history of South Asia and Islam, said countries had had contesting national narratives. To drive his point home, he gave the example of how Brexit created contesting ideas.

“However, these conflicts should not become a reason for bloodshed,” he added. The session was moderated by Syed Khawar Mehdi.