Is Pakistan doomed?

The first two generations of Pakistanis have ruined it for us, the third- and fourth-generation citizens of this great land. In sixty years, our elders have created one of the worst examples of managing a modern state.

That Pakistan started out as a nation without resources and managed to create a near-total balance of power with a rival five times larger is a testimony to the resilience and ingenuity of the Pakistani people. In the past eight years, Pakistan defied critics who unfairly called it a country obsessed with national security, and demonstrated it can also be an emerging economy, one of the fastest growing at its best.

Yet the failures of the first two generations of Pakistanis, who continue to occupy key positions in politics, government and the military, are stunning. This ruling class sustains a failed system of governance that punishes creativity and promotes mediocrity.

Barring a few examples, our infrastructure is crumbling, our buildings, roads and cities are dilapidated. There are no parks, sports facilities or recreational spots for even the middle class. Museums and amazing historical landmarks that can generate income lie forgotten. Our sports teams can't groom talent. Our politicians reside, and keep their wealth, abroad. Our political parties are little more than family-run businesses that can't produce leadership, and discourage rotation of power. Our politics resembles mediaeval feudal England. And the only advertisement on CNN that celebrates the splendid side of Pakistan is produced by an Egyptian cellular company because the Pakistani government can't undertake anything creative. It's not a question of lack of money. It's more the lack of sincerity.

A mediocre leadership and a failed system have created openings for outside powers to intervene and dictate policy, including government formation. And now exaggerated ethnic differences are being exploited by Pakistan's detractors to promote the country's disintegration. Time-tested, Cold War methods of fanning insurgencies and psychological warfare have been deployed to ensure that the Pakistani state can never stand up on its feet again. Unfortunately, some of our so-called friends are part of this scheme.

Is Pakistan doomed to failure? A bright spot in this gloomy picture is emerging. Today's third- and fourth-generation Pakistanis are the most assimilated and integrated generation of this nation. They are more intermarried, intermixed, cosmopolitan and articulate than their fathers and grandfathers. This generation transcends ethnic and linguistic fault lines. It brings together the best of what a Pakistani represents: a great history and a promising future.

The rise of this generation presents a natural and a unique opportunity for change. Drastic change. But it cannot come without an enabling environment. This opportunity will come and go, like many others before it, if those nationalist and patriotic Pakistanis sitting in positions of authority do no make an effort.

A failed system requires change. And in Pakistan's case, this change must come from the people, but it cannot happen without the help of the military institution. Our military institution has seen how repeated leadership failures forced military interventions. And military governments, despite stabilising the country, failed to create a permanent, stable, and a growing system, and ended up handing power back to the same failed political elite that never changes.

It is time that the military institution stops perpetuating the power and influence of this elite and help in laying the foundations of democracy, growth and progress. This can be done through changes in the structure of the Pakistani state and politics, and through fair and unquestionable accountability.

Pakistan must create more provinces on administrative basis to improve services and end ethnic politics. Change should include abolishing the offices of prime minister and chief ministers in favour of a directly elected president and provincial governors to improve management and end the scourge of multiple power centres that currently paralyses the State. Also, empower the middle class, the real engine of change and growth. This can be done by democratising the political parties, mandating free and fair internal elections that allow middle- and lower-class Pakistanis to rise. And enforce land reforms across rural Pakistan. And finally, streamline government bureaucracy. If China can reform the state-owned CCTV and make it profitable, so can PTV and other government departments, by introducing merit, creativity and accountability.

And lastly, inculcate pride. One of the biggest failures of the first two generations of Pakistanis is the failure to create a proud Pakistani nationalism that could spur change and defeat challenges. The Turks and the Chinese rose half a century ago from defeat. Israelis built a national identity and hope in impossible circumstances. Pakistanis themselves have risen against great odds, building and sustaining a great nation that represents centuries of historical continuity. But our thinkers and writers failed to pick up on these themes.

In these despondent times, there is a mushroom growth of doomsayers who'd like to see Pakistan go down. Some are even working on it. But it is in our hands to stop the rot and rise again.



The writer works for Geo TV. Email: aq @ahmedquraishi.com