Writ of the State

Soviet Union, East Germany, Yugoslavia, all seemed to be standing on solid foundations, destined to last forever, yet now they have become history proving the frailty of existence of states. A phrase, which became a cliché, with the Pakistani establishment in recent past, and still being used by it to justify its extraordinary actions against belligerent groups, is "writ of the state", the establishment of which is said to be the raison d'être for its military actions at Laal Masjid, in Swat, and now in Waziristan. One wonders, what is so important, about establishing writ of the state, that it warrants such forceful actions being taken by the government against its own citizens. Fundamental to grasping the importance of establishing the writ of the state, is the concept of state and the parameters within which it can claim justification for its existence.

One definition of the state, picked from the web, defines it to be a territory built by conquest in which one culture, one set of ideals and one set of laws have been imposed by force or threat over diverse nations by a civilian and military bureaucracy. Another legal definition calls it to be a term of international law referring to those groups of people which have acquired international recognition as an independent country and which have four characteristics; permanent and large population with, generally, a common language; a defined and distinct territory. Whatever definition of the state we accept, one fact established from recent history, is that states with a clearly defined set of ideals and a homogeneous culture have been gaining strength, U.S.A. is a good example to affirm this point. On the other hand states with a variety of nationalities, vying for dominance have floundered, and sank, once the unifying set of ideals that held together the states became fuzzy. Yugoslavia and the U.S.S.R. are good examples of such states, which have now ceased to exist. U.S.S.R. and its breakup also exemplifies the fact that there is more to keeping a state together, than an all-pervading economic paradigm, since keeping faith of the masses in an economic model is no easy achievement, and China has been experimenting with many different economic models, but keeping the state of China has been an uphill task for many of its successive governments.

Coming to Pakistan, a SWOT(Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis of the State of Pakistan, would be useful to get an accurate profile of its health.

Strengths

Pakistan started with a clear and well defined set of ideals, as enshrined in Muhammad Ali Jinnah's vision of a modern Muslim state . It was that of a secular and democratic country, with one language, that is Urdu, unifying the state. The culture of the whole country was to be Muslim, thus providing the common culture to be the other binding matrix for the state, but the culture was accepted at the outset to be broadminded enough, not to be totalitarian, and be accommodative not only towards minority religions, but also towards Muslims, who did not want Islam to become an intrusive instrument of the state to govern all matters of their lives. Other strengths that the country had was its optimum size and resources, both natural, and human, with a large permanent population. Its gas reservoirs, has been fueling its economy for a long time, while its oil, coal, and other mineral deposits have been a valuable asset for its economy. At partition, it acquired a valuable asset in the form of a quantum rise in population of well educated and skilled migrants, who not only gave support to the setting up of the industrial base of the new country, but were also instrumental in setting up the new administrative structure. The country also inherited a good education network which helped in producing a new educated generation, a sizable chunk of which later, as overseas Pakistanis, started making a significant contribution to the progress of the country. In short, the country started with a position of strength, with potential of becoming a prosperous and stable nation.


Weaknesses

Pakistan's first source of weakness, arose just a year after its birth, with the passing away of the father of the nation, before he could impress upon the minds of the newly-born nation, a clear and lasting impression of his vision of the state of Pakistan. Religion became the first source of discord, regarding extent of its role in the society. The religious leaders, including Maulana Maudoodi and Shabir Ahmad Usmani began to assert that Pakistan was created in the name of Islam, thus it should have characteristics of an Islamic state, with Maudoodi emphasizing on putting all laws within the framework of Shariah, while Shabir Ahmad Usmani demanding a Qazi court system to replace the already present judiciary, a demand similar to the recent demands of Taliban supporters in Swat. Thus within two years clarity and well defined concept of the State of Pakistan was eroded by the passing of objectives resolution, and the decades of ensuing bitter debate about Pakistan to be or not to be a fundamentalist state, did nothing to strengthen the state of Pakistan. One might say that debate is a healthy exercise leading to a better understanding, but when the government of Zia-ul-Haq for obvious self-serving interest became a party to it, the objectivity was lost, and resulted in further straying of the state from the original ideals of the founding father, and further weakening of the state. Some might argue that Pakistan became militarily and strategically more powerful by the policies of that government, but states can become outwardly very strong, but with a very weak and vague paradigm to hold it up, it remains very fragile from the inside, The break-up of U.S.S.R is a prime example to prove this fact.

Sibling rivalry is an accepted human phenomenon, however when the subcontinent was divided, it took a new dimension, with the larger neighbour never being able to accept the culturally and politically younger twin, and this has always been a serious difficulty, for those trying to ideologically strengthen the state in Pakistan, that the culturally stronger nighbour, has constantly been by design trying to weaken the binding cement of culture holding Pakistan together, thus making the population vulnerable to runaway ideologies, and later those very people responsible for weakening Pakistan, started the bogey of failed state, and its threat to their security. The other main weaknesss, shared by most third world countries, is rampant corruption, resulting in bad governance and mismanagement of resources on a massive scale.


Opportunities

The breaking up of Soviet Union has been a windfall in disguise, for Pakistan. Pakistan is already becoming a cross-road city for trade between Central Asian Republics rich in resources, principally oil, and the West which is hungry for those resources, and the huge market for its products. Pakistan has the necessary infrastructure for providing a business access network with a good communications system to support it, and a skilled and educated human resource to run it. Pakistan has much to benefit from this opportunity, if stability is brought in the whole country, by establishing the writ of the state.

Threats

Threats to the state are mainly ideological, apparently from inside, since they could be supported from outside. Whatever be the source of the threat, there is a strong need to strengthen the ideological framework and boundaries of the state, and win the confidence of the people, and convince them that their emancipation lies in staying within the concepts laid out by our founding fathers. Other threat is common to all states where a homogenous culture has not yet evolved, that is different nationalities trying to assert their autonomies, claiming a sense of deprivation, and there is a need to remove this sense of deprivation perceived by different nationalities. External aggressions have lost much of their relevance in the modern world, and the best guarantee is to become closely enmeshed with the global economy and develop closer ties with the rest of the world.