Profile of a Young Pakistan

Dear Mr. Pakistan:

It is fourteenth of August. Happy birthday. I wish you the best of luck and prosperity. Let’s talk candidly on your birthday. Your age is young for a nation. I am sure you must be enjoying your rightful vitality of youth without pensively looking ahead about adulthood that is due to come. Transition from youth to adulthood is typified by self doubt, impulsivity and trial and error. Imperfection is part of life and it waters the seeds of future. Nobody should be second guessing it.

In youth, anguish at present and a romantic outlook for the future is common but your youth is tormented by drumbeats of conflict between reality and hope and perhaps your hopes are drifting away fast, not because of any fault of your own making.

Mr. Pakistan: You are not too old yet and you have been raised in such a manner where confusion was bound to be part of your psyche. You were conceived in British India. Carving out Pakistan from mother India, as convenient as it seemed to the Muslims at that time, bore some bitters fruits too. Horrors of partition and wars with India aside, one half of your own body preferred secession for it could not stand the smoldering fire of your confusions. Even now, regional tensions are daily events that reinforce follies of the past for your newer generations.

Difficulties in detaching yourself from the past are rooted in your confusion and lack of sense of identity. Let me try to make myself somewhat clear here. Nations are like children. They have to resolve their childhood conflicts to grow to become mature adults. Survival is of course the foremost issue. One way or the other it must be assured. If not, neither confident mature nations evolve nor is identity crisis resolved. These two problems are intertwined in your case.

Successful nations develop a sense of mature and healthy identity. You know the fundamental elements of identity; language, culture, music, religion and economic interests are a must, to name a few. In troubled situations common enemy can also help define identity.

Well, you chose to separate from India without being clear in own your mind first as to why did you want to separate. You had to live with a culture and language that was the shared heritage of your ancestry with India. The same music equally touched hearts on both sides of the border. These things could not make the bedrock of your identity. You did not have much choice but to resort to religion from far away lands for sake of identity. But, do you realize that you have a border with Iran and Afghanistan? If religion could have been the binding force then how you could justify your borders with the neighboring Muslim countries.

I suppose your religious consciousness got a big boost when you stepped in Soviet-American-Afghan conflict. Even your own nationalistic feelings underwent conversion to a Jihadist sentiment. But please note that, even previously, you had often acted out violently with religious symbolism. Carnage due to sectarianism on top of regionalism bespeaks of your divisive consciousness and religious nostalgia also. It is hard to build nations on divisive consciousness.

As a new born country you could not determine your economic interest according to your aspirations. It caused strains. Nonetheless, you did what all conflicted kids do. You defined your identity negatively to connect dots of your divided consciousness. The easiest thing was to come together against India from whom you had separated. Anti-India posture turned out to be your new personality. It gave you some sense of identity but at an enormous cost. A major portion of your budget gets spent forever on arms and a huge military, not to mention its expensive generals and more recently nuclear weapons also. You were able to do it all but at the expense of your education and social prosperity.

But, I must admit the genius of your military generals and civilian leaders. All of them fed into anti-India stance to solve your identity crisis but remember it is a negative identity, not a healthy positive sense of self. I want to tell you, whether you like me or not, that your national identity crisis is still not resolved and I hardly see any hopeful signs for its resolution even in the future.

Dear Pakistan: You are not too bad. I know that you are trying to work out your troubles with help of foreign powers and military generals. May be that is also a problem. The generals have been too many in your history who liked to take chairs that suited civilians better. However, it is equally true that the civilians did not fare any better. Could I remind you first that a theory has to be absolutely perfect for it to yield predicted results. One of your leaders tried to administer you a mixture of Islam and socialism. I am not sure how a divine code and man made theory mix and match. One thing is certain though; confusion of your poor folks increased who have a daily struggle for bread and butter cut out for them.

Lately, you have tried to play with militarized-democracy. Your new experience is exactly like the old one. Beg and borrow money from big powers and super lenders with strings attached and outspend yourself on half national motives. Have super-lenders craft your policies that make sure money never leaves their banks. Some say only a very small portion reaches at the bottom for good of common man. All of this is done with civilians signing on the deals that generals finalize. I doubt it will solve your problems. I fear it may increase your foreign dependency.

My dear Pakistan: I don’t mean that you cannot make good for future out of your present. I am sure you are smart and you can do it. It is not easy but you will have to think differently and positively and you have to learn self reliance. It is difficult in the beginning but it becomes a habit like any thing.

If you continued to look at others with paranoia as your enemies, you will never be able to make peace with them. Animosity is like a monster that thrives on your flesh. It will never let you grow strong. Thinking and behaving peace genuinely will save you money that you can use for your education, health and social structure. You will be pleasantly surprised to feel that your divided self comes together.

I also believe it will be a new and a healthy experience for you and you will see that peace is not only a moral imperative, it is economical too.

Again, best of luck for your future and warm regards.

Tahir Qazi