Pakistan got independence in August 1947. We recently celebrated our 75th year of freedom. A few questions are worth pondering amid these celebrations; a) Did we achieve the major objectives we were deemed to achieve as a state? b) Are we a nation or a crowd after 75 years of independence? c) Did the first two lots/generations succeed in making Pakistan a stable country let alone a great power? The most pressing question in this regard is the last one. This piece answers in negative to the question and aims to explain the reasons, why a whole lot has failed to stabilize Pakistan in any term except a few and then suggests the new lot to not repeat the mistakes committed by the first two lots.
Ibn Khaldun, the true founding father of Modern Sociology, argues in his book, ‘The Muqaddimah: An Introduction to History,’ that a generation is equal to 40 years. According to this definition, Pakistan has seen two generations/lots so far; one between 1947-87 and the second between 1987-to this day. In this piece, these two generations are commonly identified as a whole lot. The first generation, undoubtedly, found Pakistan in terribly bad shape. A few major problems and challenges that were born with Pakistan were, the establishment of a government, particularly after its founding father`s death; unfair boundary distribution; delayed division of military equipment between India and Pakistan, economic imbalance, as major industries remained in India; the issue of framing a constitution; issues of opting a national language between Urdu and Bengali; settlement and rehabilitation of refugees who were forced to leave India after subcontinent’s division.
This generation sorted out a few of these problems but could not get over these hurdles completely. For instance, despite delays in the provision of military equipment, Pakistan has a disciplined Army, which is counted among the most professional ones in the world. Secondly, this generation also managed to live with unfair distribution of boundaries and started making industries with limited sources in hand. Muslims, who became victims of violence and were forced to leave India because of their religion, were also wholeheartedly greeted here. Even, one of Pakistan`s famous chiefs of Armed Staff and a military ruler, Parvez Musharraf was one of them whose family had left India for Pakistan.
However, this generation failed to recognize Bengalis as equal citizens. Muhammad Ali Jinnah`s death in 1948 left Liaquat Ali Khan as the only option to run state affairs. While Liaquat Ali Khan`s assassination in 1951 faded all the chances of political stability in the country. It took nine long years for this generation to frame a constitution (1956). Even that constitution could not last more than two years. In 1958, President Iskander Mirza, abrogated the constitution, appointing Ayub Khan as the chief martial law administrator. In contrast, India adopted its constitution in November 1949 and that constitution paved the way for democracy and political stability in that country.
Then Ayub Khan was the major player in framing another constitution that was introduced in 1962. But he himself did not abide by it when in 1969 he handed over the presidency to another military dictator Yahya Khan, instead of following the constitution and transferring the power to the speaker of the house, Sheikh Mujib Ur Rehman. This lot also failed to keep the Eastern part of the country united. This lot also fought two wars with India.
However, it needs to be acknowledged that in the 1965`s war Pak Army despite being seven times smaller than the Indian armed forces had brought the rival force to a stalemate, which is commendable. And despite losing a part of the country in 1971, the political lot, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto in specific, managed to bring thousands of Pakistani soldiers back home from Indian prisons and also managed to regain the lost territories through his extraordinary diplomatic skills. This lot is also accredited to give a constitution (of 1973) to the country that is still in place with few amendments in it.
The country was again plunged into dictatorship in 1977. Zia Ul Haq`s regime assisted the United States to counter the former Soviet Union in Afghanistan and supported jihad in Afghanistan against the former Soviet Union. The seeds of Kalashnikov culture, border issues, ethnic conflicts, sectarianism, and border terrorism were sowed. Still, people of great courage in this lot, bored hard times but never justified many of the regime policies of that time, which is appreciable.
Then the charge was taken by the second lot after Zia`s death in 1988. This lot, mainly civilian leadership, failed to achieve political stability throughout the 1990s. A major achievement of this lot was to declare Pakistan a nuclear-capable state by carrying out nuclear tests in May 1998. Soon after these tests and the Kargil Incident, another dictator took charge of the country in 1999. This lot was also compelled to join America`s war on terror on the pretext ‘if you are not with us, you are against us’ after 9/11. The economy of the country started getting worse with every passing year in these recent decades.
Though the smooth transfer of power is another major achievement of this lot when Pakistan Peoples` Party`s Government transferred power to the newly elected government of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz in 2013 and later handed over power to Pakistan Tehreek I Insaaf in 2018, it still has failed to achieve political stability, eradicate corruption, end leg-pulling, and stabilize the economy of the country.
However, the new and upcoming lot should focus on the causes, more than the effects. As lack of consciousness is a major cause of the effects like corruption, mismanagement, lag-pulling, dirty politics, and many more. For instance, a person sitting in a puncture shop gets the chance to do fraud of Rs. 20 and an elite of higher ranks gets the chance to steal Rs. 20 billion from the state treasury are same, it is only the matter of chances they are getting that defines their level of corruption. In fact, both are unaware of the massive scale of damage they are causing to society. Both are creating mistrust, both are teaching and preaching different ways of corruption, and both are violating social norms of honesty and decency.
Moreover, lack of honesty and civic sense are other two major aspects of instabilities and corruption in our society. For instance, mosques are meant to be places where one worships and talks to God, which needs a lot of focus. Whereas in this society, the majority of the people keep thinking during offering prayers about whether their shoes are still there where they have kept them, or have been stolen.
One of the ultimate objectives of this new lot should be to make people aware of the rewards of doing good and the punishments of doing bad and make sure to reward and penalize them according to respected capacities. In short, make rule of law possible by every possible means, whether remaining in bureaucracy, politics, establishment, business industry, or any other profession. Compromises on meritocracy for self-interests should be ended. Secondly, this lot should not follow any leader, let him/her be a political, religious, military, or tribal one, blindly. To err is human and these leaders are no exceptions.
Thirdly, when it comes to religion in particular, Almighty Allah orders in the Holy Qur`an in Surah Nur verse number 15 to not spread a word without verification as it is a great offense in the sight of Him. Therefore, this lot should keep this verse in special focus before spreading any word or following a religious cleric`s interpretations. Fourthly, instead of dreaming of a life in the West, this lot should make every possible effort to improve living and moral standards in their mohallas, villages, towns, cities, provinces, and the country. Moreover, punctuality, upholding expectations, honoring commitments, and performing duties diligently are other qualities that this new lot should stick to.
Last but certainly not least, politics is not dirty, rather it is in dirty hands, the majority of our politicians and stakeholders are neither competent enough nor honest enough to steer the country in the right direction. Therefore, this lot is advised to take part in politics and make this noble profession noble again, instead of falling lazy and playing time-wasting blame games. As Plato rightly says, “One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.”
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The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author.
The author is a research fellow at Balochistan Think Tank Network, Quetta, Pakistan.
