Is Pakistan a Failed State?
17 September, 2010
By Admiral Fasih Bokhari
There is a line dropped by vested interests that Pakistan is a failed state. Many, within Pakistan, too, have picked up the line and quote it as a base for Pakistan bashing.
By no account can Pakistan be deemed as a failed state.
No, Pakistan is not a failed state.
Pakistan is a state that has faced two strategic compulsions since its birth. It has been the pivot of the Great Game in Asia on the one hand, and the focus of Indian hegemonic designs on the other. It made alliances with regional and world powers both for survival against Indian hegemony, and to protect its Muslim identity that included support for all Muslim freedom struggles.(Pakistan is greatly respected throughout the Muslim world for its decades of potent material and moral support: the details of which remain unknown to the public at large because they could not be disclosed publicly). These compulsions forced us to become a Security State.
Stronger armed forces were needed to secure the future of “Pakistanis” of Kashmir whose state was overrun by the Indian army in 1948. Unfortunately our Navy was too weak and thus unable to save the “Pakistanis” of Junagadh, and later the “Pakistanis” of Bengal from the brazen assaults of India.
The compulsion of Indian hegemony has not subsided. It has been hurting us in the recent past because of their adroit alliance with Israel and NATO; posing as a supporter in their Great Game to contain China (Pakistan’s friend) and neutralize Pakistan, (supporter and mentor of all Muslim freedom struggles including, most importantly, Palestine).
Nations are not built on false perceptions, and certainly not by those who are not ready to fight for their future.
Yes, surrender is an option, but I do not believe that the majority of Pakistanis are willing to break their country voluntarily, become a part of India, and contain China on behalf of Imperial powers who have kept our people in poverty for centuries.
Our struggle has been fought on many fronts:
- Armed non regular youth who have defeated the USSR and have brought NATO and India to a standstill on the battlefield.
- The Armed Forces who have read the strategic and political intentions and given support where necessary, opposing where necessary: but always maintaining a strong deterrent posture.
- Politicians and bureaucrats who have provided an appropriately ambiguous and dexterous policy cover and suitable diplomatic thrust.
- Scientists, academia, professionals who have supported the technical and moral strengthening of the nation against external media assaults.
- People in general who have worked hard in trying national periods of financial deprivation and against many natural and war induced calamities to keep this nation fed and moving forward in its infrastructure and HDI expansion.
The nation has indeed reached a turning point in its external and internal dynamics. It is a lack of understanding of today’s imperatives that makes many of us wary of Pakistan’s challenges:
EXTERNAL:
- NATO and Indian destabilization of Pakistan was being pursued by international forces and media. It was and is being resisted and responded to by patriotic ground forces and intelligentsia and media of Pakistan.
- NATO and Indian forces have lost the ground war and are struggling for “least damaging” exits.
- The backbone of NATO i.e. America, has been broken. A new world order is on the brink of being born. China, Brazil, Turkey, Russia are flexing their muscles on the international stage.
- To emerge as an international economic power India will one day beg Pakistan for reach into Iran, Central Asia , and beyond to Russia and Europe. India will beg Bangladesh for reach into South East and East Asia.
INTERNAL:
- The shift from Security to Economy is underway.
- This shift required an independent judiciary, free media, and representative governance with financial authority at all levels from grass roots upward. The internal struggle for this change by the people, intelligentsia, media etc is well underway. The Lawyers Movement for judiciary was well supported. The intelligentsia struggle for free media was ably pursued. Action for morality in politics and elimination of self serving politicians, and government servants in the military and bureaucracy, is showing good results by the day.
- The financial and material support for non-regular armed youth is known and is being squeezed where necessary.
- The major political parties are displaying “conciliatory” politics. Some pro Western and Indian failed politicians are still visible in our political landscape, but they are fast losing support for their agendas.
Pakistan is a vibrant nation that is moving ably into a better future for itself and the world that it has been fighting so ably to construct. It is a nation of 170 million to be reckoned with.
How have our foes fared? USSR is dead. India is facing multiple internal insurgencies. America is facing an unprecedented economic downturn and political system rejection. America’s adulterer Clinton and idiot Bush: UK’s poodle Blair and bumbling Brown, Italy’s “Don” Berloscuni, France’s playboy Sarkozy, India’s senile Singh. Our politicians are world standard too, so don’t despair.
Pakistan is not a failed stat.Though many would like to project it as one.
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